Brickellia paniculata (Mill.) B.L. Rob: A Review of Medicinal Uses and Chemo-Biological Potential

Medicinal plants (MP) are a reservoir of chemical structures and have great economic importance due to their diverse biological activities. These are used by more than 80% of the world population, for this reason these are overexploited because they are a source of main drug (taxol, morphine, vincristine, vinblastine, artemisinin, galegin, etc.), and also have high nutritional, timber, cosmetic, and/or agricultural value. At present, China exports 120,000 tons of MP, India about 32,000 tons while Europe imports 400,000 tons; this overexploitation has caused many of these plants to be in danger of extinction. Also, MP are raw material for the development of phytodrugs such as Ginseng, Hyperikan, EchinaceA, Kava-kava, Vitango, Plantival, Prostasan among others, whose therapeutic efficacy and safety has been scientifically assayed. Brickellia paniculata is widely used in Mexico in traditional medicine, and has been poorly investigated from the chemical and biological point of view; so in this paper we describe the biological and chemical reports for this medicinal plant.