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Review
. 2022 Dec 2;11(23):3348.
doi: 10.3390/plants11233348.

Traditional Knowledge, Phytochemistry, and Biological Properties of Vachellia tortilis

Douae Taha  1   2 , Souad El Hajjaji  1 , Yassine Mourabit  1 , Abdelhakim Bouyahya  2 , Learn-Han Lee  3 , Naoual El Menyiy  4 , Aanniz Tarik  5 , Taoufiq Benali  6 , Hamza El Moudden  7 , Monica Gallo  8 , Naima Iba  2 , Ilhame Bourais  2
Affiliations
Review

Traditional Knowledge, Phytochemistry, and Biological Properties of Vachellia tortilis

Douae Taha et al. Plants (Basel). .

Abstract

Vachellia tortilis is a medicinal plant of the Fabaceae family, widely distributed in arid and semi-arid regions of North, East and Southern Africa, the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula. In traditional medicine. It's commonly used to treat certain ailments, including diabetes, asthma, hepatitis and burns. Different scientific search databases were used to obtain data on V. tortilis, notably Google Scholar, Scopus, Wiley Online, Scifinder, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, and PubMed. The knowledge of V. tortilis was organized based on ethnomedicinal use, phytochemistry, and pharmacological investigations. Phytochemical studies revealed the presence of a variety of phytocompounds, including fatty acids, monosaccharides, flavonoids, chalcones, and alcohols. Essential oils and organic extracts prepared from V. tortilis showed several biological properties, specifically antibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic, antioxidant, antiproliferative, anti-diabetic, and anti-inflammatory effects. Antimicrobial and antiparasitic activities are due to the disturbance of cellular membranes and ultra-structural changes triggered by V. tortilis phytochemicals. While physiological and molecular processes such as apoptosis induction, preventing cell proliferation, and inflammatory mediators are responsible for the anti-diabetic, anti-cancer, and anti-inflammatory activities. However, further investigations concerning pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics should be carried out to validate their clinical applications.

Keywords: Fabaceae family; Vachellia tortilis; antimicrobial activities; bioactive compounds; medicinal use; pharmacological effects.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Geographic distribution of V. tortilis. The red dots in the figure legend illustrate the species intensity of distribution.
Figure 2
Figure 2
V. tortilis tree general aspect (a), leaves (b), flowers (c), gum (d) and pods (e) (https://www.teline.fr, accessed on 10 August 2022).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Structures of the main flavonoids, (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Structures of the main chalcone (1), (2).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Structures of the main alcohols in V. tortilis (1), (2).
Figure 6
Figure 6
In vivo antidiabetic mechanism effects of V. tortilis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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