A review of ethnomedicine, phytochemical and pharmacological activities of Acacia nilotica (Linn) Willd

Abstract

An impressive abound medicinal plants have been utilized for the treatment of diseases from the time immemorial. The medicinal plants used in traditional medicine still plays an important role in emerging and developing countries since; they are inexpensive, effective and have natural origin. Acacia arabica commonly known as babul belongs to the family Fabaceae is widely distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical plains all over India, Sri Lanka, and Sudan, this plant is native to Egypt. Almost all its parts such as root, bark, leaves, flower, gum, pods etc are used in medication. The qualitative phytochemical study of different part of plant extract like leaves and fruits contain tannin; flowers contain stearic acid, kaempferol-3- glucoside, isoquercetin, leucocyanidin; pods contain tannin gum contain Arabic acid combined with calcium, magnesium and potassium. Moreover, polyphenolic compounds have also been reported in pods and bark. In traditional medicine, it is used for bleeding diseases, prolapse, leucorrhoea etc and experimental studies of A. arabica showed antihypertensive, antispasmodic, antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant activity etc. The present review is an attempt to explore and comprehensively highlight the ethnomedicine uses, phytochemical properties and pharmacological uses of Acacia arabica reported till date.