Phytochemistry and Pharmacological Effects of Plants in Genus Sonchus (Asteraceae)

ABSTRACT Medicinal plants have been used since ancient times for treatment of various diseases. Many of the drugs available on the market today originated either directly or indirectly from bioactive compounds isolated from plants. Family Asteraceae is one of the largest families of flowering plants, comprising 1600 genera and almost 30000 species worldwide (Bisht et al., 2010). The genus Sonchus is a genus of flowering plants in the dandelion tribe of the Asteraceae Family. It consists mostly of annual herbs, but a few are perennial or woody herbs. Annual herbs, known as sow thistles, were used as food stock for animals, particularly for rabbits. They are also edible to humans as a leafy vegetable. In Chinese folk medicine, sow thistles have been used for the treatment of fever, inflammation, for detoxication and improvement of blood circulation. Recent advances in the ethnomedicinal, phytochemical, and pharmacological studies of this genus are reviewed in this paper (Muhammed et .,al 2012 ). Results showed that secondary metabolites isolated and identified from genus Sonchus were mainly terpenes, sterols, flavonoids, and coumarins. In vivo and in vitro pharmacological studies have shown that plants belonging to this genus exhibit various biological activities, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antidepressant, anxiolytic, and anti-tumor activities (Jain et al., 2014). Further attention should be given to the study of species belonging to genus Sonchus especially regarding toxicological effects. Further research on Sonchus plants should be conducted using bioactivity-guided isolation strategies to isolate and identify the bioactive metabolites in this genus.