Ethnopharmacological Importance of Xylopia aethiopica (DUNAL) A. RICH (Annonaceae) - A Review

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Xylopia aethiopica or Ethiopian pepper is a plant that thrives in most of the evergreen rain forests of tropical and subtropical Africa, and it is currently grown most prominently in Ghana as a crop. Almost all parts of Xylopia aethiopica possess great medicinal values in traditional medicine. In most parts of Africa, it is used in the treatment of cough, rheumatism, dysentery, malaria, uterine fibroid, boils, and wounds among others. This review summarizes published data on phytochemistry, toxicological properties, Ethnopharmacological and other uses of Xylopia aethiopica, and aims at providing an up-to-date detail that should constitute baseline information for future research on the plant.

Materials and Methods: Google Scholar, Scifinder® and PubMed were the electronic databases used to search for and filter published research on Xylopia aethiopica.

Results: The various parts of Xylopia aethiopica possess a wide diversity of phytochemicals. A detailed description of only a few of these phytochemicals i.e. essential oils, alkaloids and diterpenes is available in published research currently. Extracts and isolates from almost all parts of the plant tends to possess one bioactivity or another that confirms its traditional uses, and have largely shown to be of low toxicity.

Conclusion: Xylopia aethiopica has shown to possess potential pharmacological benefits; there is however, the need for further research to be conducted on various extracts and isolates of the plant that showed promise during In vitro and animal studies, to ascertain its potency, safety and efficacy in humans.