A Review on the Biological Activity and the Triterpenoids from the Genus Vernonia (Asteraceae Family)

Medicinal plants have always played a key part in health care. In fact, plants represent an enormous pool of new, undiscovered, and bioactive molecules. Therefore, ethnopharmacological and ethnobotanical studies are essential to discover new substances for the treatment of diseases. The Vernonia genus has about one thousand species and members of the genus are widely used as food and medicine. The plant-derived triterpenoids are commonly used for medicinal purposes in many countries, because they possess various pharmacological properties. A large number of triterpenoids are known to exhibit cytotoxicity against a variety of tumor cells as well as anticancer efficacy in preclinical animal models. Therefore this review presents an overview of Vernonia species with their biological potential, ethnomedicinal uses and the triterpenoids isolated from this genus. This will help to identify the state of ethnopharmacological knowledge in regard to this genus and to propose future research priorities.