Andrographis paniculata (Burm. f.) Wall. ex Nees: a review of ethnobotany, phytochemistry, and pharmacology

Abstract

As aboriginal sources of medications, medicinal plants are used from the ancient times. Andrographis paniculata is one of the highly used potential medicinal plants in the world. This plant is traditionally used for the treatment of common cold, diarrhoea, fever due to several infective cause, jaundice, as a health tonic for the liver and cardiovascular health, and as an antioxidant. It is also used to improve sexual dysfunctions and serve as a contraceptive. All parts of this plant are used to extract the active phytochemicals, but the compositions of phytoconstituents widely differ from one part to another and with place, season, and time of harvest. Our extensive data mining of the phytoconstituents revealed more than 55 ent-labdane diterpenoids, 30 flavonoids, 8 quinic acids, 4 xanthones, and 5 rare noriridoids. In this review, we selected only those compounds that pharmacology has already reported. Finally we focused on around 46 compounds for further discussion. We also discussed ethnobotany of this plant briefly. Recommendations addressing extraction process, tissue culture, and adventitious rooting techniques and propagation under abiotic stress conditions for improvement of phytoconstituents are discussed concisely in this paper. Further study areas on pharmacology are also proposed where needed.

Figure 1

Morphology of Andrographis paniculata. (a) Mature A. paniculata in polybag stage, (b) flowering stage, (c) harvested seeds, (d) in vitro seedling, (e) young A. paniculata in polybag, (f) adventitious roots of A. paniculata, and (g) vegetative seedlings. Single direction of arrow indicates the developmental stages and both directions of arrow denote vegetative propagation of plant (Photographs are taken from M.S. Hossain's research work, except (b)).

Figure 2

Extraction of pure compounds of A. paniculata from MeOH extracts. Yield of pure compounds is in bracket in mg. Their structures have been elucidated mainly by 1D and 2D NMR and MS spectroscopic methods. SGCC: silica gel column chromatography; TLC: thin layer chromatography, MeOH: methanol; EtOAc: ethyl acetate, CHCl₃: chloroform (adopted from [72]).