The chemistry and biological activities of natural products from Northern African plant families: from Ebenaceae to Solanaceae

Abstract

Traditional medicinal practices significantly affect the livelihoods of populations in countries with developing economies. The aim of this survey was to validate the use of traditional medicine within Northern African communities. In this review series, we summarize the ethnobotanical uses of selected plant species from Northern African flora and attempt to correlate the activities of the isolated bioactive principles with known local uses of the plant species in traditional medicine. The literature is covered for the period 1971 to 2014. Part II of this series focuses on plant families with names beginning with letters E to S, with the ethnobotanical uses of 30 plant species from 17 families compared with the bioactivities of 133 compounds identified.