Natural antiemetics: an overview

Abstract

Emesis encompasses the forceful expulsion of the contents of stomach via the mouth or sometimes the nose. The adverse effects of currently available anti-emetic agents potentiate the natural product researchers to explore the natural anti-emetics with fewer side effects. The presented communication constitutes a review on anti-emetic effect of two hundred and forty five plants belonging to seventy-eight families found in different parts of the world. It also outlined the anti-emetic effect of plant extracts and isolated secondary metabolites studied through a variety of animal models of emesis. The reported anti-emetic plants in different countries and cultures and the scientific studies on extracts may help in the identification of promising single chemical compound(s) that may be used as a potential leads for developing safe anti-emetic agents in future. Moreover the reported secondary metabolites having the same effect may open the door for the search of same secondary metabolites from other natural sources. This review will provide useful information for the discovery of natural anti-emetic compounds and fill the gaps in knowledge.