Review of studies published on the medicinal importance of different parts of Citrullus lanatus in the last ten years

Abstract

Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus), (CL) is an edible fruit of Cucurbitaceae family. It is cultivated worldwide for it is nutritive and medicinal values. The records of online scientific publications on CL were accessed using Google, Google Scholar, PubMed, science.gov, Scopus, and Worldwide science as search engines, were collected from January 2010 to April 2021 and analyzed using descriptive statis tics. Emphasis was placed on phytochemical, proximate, antioxidant, and pharmacological published articles on different parts of CL during this period. A total of 121 published articles that focused on different parts of CL in the last ten years were retrieved with phytochemicals 17.4% (21), proximate 7.4% (9), antioxidants 6.6% (8), pharmacology 68.6% (83). The pharmacology field was subdivided into antimicrobial 14.9% (18), cardioprotective 10.2% (13), reproduction 9.2% (12), toxicology and hepatoprotective 6.6% (8) each, analgesic, and anti-inflammatory 5.8%, neuroprotective 3.3% (4), anthelmintics (0.8%). Considering publications on different parts of CL, the seed received the highest attention with 42.1% (51) followed by fruits 35.5% (43), rind 18.1% (22), leaf 2.5% (3) while the least was whole fruit 1.7% (2). It was observed in this review on published articles that the CL fruits received the highest level of attention considering the phytochemicals, proximate, and antioxidant components to exhibit good antimicrobial potentials. While the CL leaf receivedlittle attention on antimicrobial ability. Also, different parts exhibited cardioprotective, reproduction, toxicology, hepatoprotective, neuroprotective, analgesic, and anti-inflammatory activities, anti-ulcerative efficacy due to phytochemicals, antioxidant, and proximate constituents in different parts of CL. It is worth noting that neuroprotective, hepatoprotective, antidiabetic, and anthelmintics effects of different parts of CL received little attention. While there is still dearth of information on use of different parts of CL on cancer investigations and use. This scientific review on different parts of CL had highlighted knowledge gap that still exists on different parts of CL.