The Genus Heracleum: A Comprehensive Review on Its Phytochemistry, Pharmacology, and Ethnobotanical Values as a Useful Herb

Abstract

Heracleum species, also known as hogweed, are traditionally used as food additives, spices, and flavoring agents. Moreover, these plants are widely used in folklore medicine for the treatment of many disorders such as inflammation, flatulence, stomachache, epilepsy, psoriasis, and as carminative, wound healing, antiseptic, antidiarrheal, tonic, digestive, pain killer, analgesic, and anticonvulsant agents. The genus Heracleum has broad pharmacological activities: anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anticholinesterase, anti-oxidant, antiviral, cytotoxic, and anticarcinogenic. A total of 94 compounds have been isolated from plants of the Heracleum genus, all indicating vital biological activities. Also, about 50 compounds have been identified as major components in their essential oils. The genus is rich in several types of bioactive coumarin compounds, with huge potential for the discovery of new coumarins. Various parts of these plants produce essential oils (mainly aliphatic esters and monoterpenes) with a wide spectrum of biological activities. Heracleum species have great potential for applications in the food, cosmetics, perfumery, and pharmaceutical industries due to their broad ethnobotanical uses and pharmacological properties. Accordingly, this review aims to categorize updated and comprehensive information on ethnobotanical uses, phytochemistry, and pharmacology of Heracleum species in order to open new perspectives for future studies, including possible uses as functional ingredients in food products.

Anticancer, Antioxidant Properties and Phenolic, Flavonoid Composition of Heracleum platytaenium Plant Methanolic Extracts

“…Coumarins possess a variety of biological properties, such as antioxidant, and enzyme inhibitory activity [1]. So, it might be responsible for bioactivity of the different parts of the methanolic extracts of the H. platytaenium plant.…”

“…The genus Heracleum, one of the broader classes of the Apiaceae family, is represented by approximately 125 species worldwide and are known to contain flavonoids, coumarins and triterpene saponins [1]. Heracleum is represented by 109 species in Asia with 23 species found in Turkey among which 9 are endemic [2].…”

“…In Turkish folk medicine H. platytaenium is known as 'Baldırgan' or 'Tavşancık otu' [5]. Various parts of this plant produce essential oils (mainly aliphatic esters and monoterpenes) with a wide range of biological activity [1]. In the last few years, new compounds such as p-cymene (33.9%), terpinolene (14.3%), γ-terpinene (7.1%), elemicine (3.1%) and myristicine (2.9%) as the major constituents have been isolated from the roots of the H. platytaenium plant [6].…”

Traditional Uses of Medicinal Plants of Summer Hill, Shimla

“…Sometimes the outer flowers of the umbel are much larger than the inner ones. [29] Traditional uses i) Used to make poultices to be applied to bruises or sores.…”

Cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, and mutagenicity potential of ethanolic extract of Heracleum persicum Desf. ex Fischer

“…The fruits of Golpar is used as flavoring agent and dietary spice in the Iranian cuisine and the young stems are used for making pickles. Furthermore, it is utilized for miscellaneous remedial purposes including carminative, anticonvulsant, analgesic, cure of neurological, urinary tract and gastrointestinal problems in the Iranian traditional medicine (Bahadori et al, ; Dadjo et al, ; Majidi & Sadati Lamardi, ; Panahi, Dadjo, Pishgoo, Akbari, & Sahebkar, ). Pharmacological studies have demonstrated a wide range of biological activities including anti‐bacterial (Akcin, Seyis, Akcin, Cayci, & Coban, ; Atapour et al, ; Buruk, Sokmen, Aydin, & Erturk, ; Kousha & Bayat, ; Vasanthi, ShriShri Mal, & Das, ), anti‐fungal (Kousha & Bayat, ; Nejad, Rajabi, Mamoudabadi, & Zarrin, ; Vasanthi et al, ), anti‐proliferative (Firuzi, Asadollahi, Gholami, & Javidnia, ; Moshafi, Sharififar, Dehghan, & Ameri, ), anti‐inflammatory (Hajhashemi, Sajjadi, & Heshmati, ; Panahi et al, ), immune‐modulatory (Naeini, Shokri, & Khosravi, ; Sharififar et al, ), antioxidant (Coruh, SagˇdıçogˇluCelep, & Özgökçe, ; Nickavar & Abolhasani, ), analgesic (Hajhashemi et al, ), and lipid‐modifying (Panahi et al, ) properties.…”