The genus Stephania - Dr. DS Kothari Postdoctoral Fellowship ...

370 D.K. Semwal et al. / Journal of Ethnopharmacology 132 (2010) 369–383
3.17. Stephania pierrei Diels ....................................................................................................................... 375
3.18. Stephania gracilenta Miers .................................................................................................................. 375
3.19. Stephania rotunda Lour. ..................................................................................................................... 375
3.20. Stephania sasakii Hayata .................................................................................................................... 375
3.21. Stephania sinica Diels........................................................................................................................ 375
3.22. Stephania suberosa L. L. Forman ............................................................................................................. 375
3.23. Stephania succifera H. S. Lo & Y. Tsoong ..................................................................................................... 375
3.24. Stephania sutchuenensis H.S.Lo............................................................................................................. 376
3.25. Stephania tetrandra S. Moore ................................................................................................................ 376
3.26. Stephania venosa (Blume) Spreng. .......................................................................................................... 376
4. Biological activities................................................................................................................................... 376
4.1. Anti-malarial activity ......................................................................................................................... 376
4.2. Antimicrobial activity ........................................................................................................................ 376
4.3. Anthelmintic activity ......................................................................................................................... 377
4.4. Anti-viral activity ............................................................................................................................. 377
4.5. Anti-proliferative/anti-cancer activity ....................................................................................................... 377
4.6. Antipsychotic activity ........................................................................................................................ 377
4.7. Apoptosis inducing effect .................................................................................................................... 377
4.8. Multidrug resistance reversing activity ...................................................................................................... 377
4.9. Anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity ................................................................................................... 378
4.10. Immunomodulating activity ................................................................................................................ 378
4.11. Antifibrotic effect ........................................................................................................................... 378
4.12. Anti-hyperglycemic effect .................................................................................................................. 378
4.13. Ca 2+ channel blocking activity .............................................................................................................. 378
4.14. Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitory activity ............................................................................................ 379
4.15. Vasodilating and hypotensive activities .................................................................................................... 379
4.16. Inhibition of antinociceptive effect ......................................................................................................... 379
4.17. Acute hemodynamic effect ................................................................................................................. 379
4.18. Histamine release inhibition activity ....................................................................................................... 379
4.19. Antioxidant activity ......................................................................................................................... 379
4.20. Miscellaneous uses .......................................................................................................................... 379
4.21. Toxic effects ................................................................................................................................. 380
5. Future perspectives and conclusion ................................................................................................................. 380
Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................. 380
References ........................................................................................................................................... 380
1. Introduction
The genus Stephania belongs to family Menispermaceae, a large
family of about 65 genera and 350 species, distributed in warmer
parts of the world. The members of this family are mostly herbs
or shrubs but rarely trees. The plants of the genus Stephania are
slender climbers with peltate and membranous leaves. The flowers
are umbelliform cymes while inflorescence are axillary and arising
from old leafless stem. These plants have recognized medicinal values
and traditionally have been used for the treatment of asthma,
tuberculosis, dysentery, hyperglycemia, cancer, fever, intestinal
complaints, sleep disturbances and inflammation (Chopra et al.,
1958; Gaur, 1999; Kirtikar and Basu, 2004).
Over the last five decades, an extensive amount of chemical
work has been done on many of these plants because of their traditional
uses which are of interest to researchers. These plants are
major sources of bioactive alkaloids such as morphines, hasubanalactams,
hasubanans, aporphines and berberines. The majority
of the chemical work has been reported on S. tetrandra S. Moore,
S. cepharantha Hayata, S. glabra (Roxb.) Miers, S. japonica (Thunb.)
Miers and S. venosa (Blume) Spreng, and more than 70 alkaloids
along with other minor constituents have been reported from these
five species alone. Many of these plants are known for their distinct
biological importance including antitumor and emetine type
activity (Kuroda et al., 1976; Gupta et al., 1980).
In past decade, Chinese-herb nephropathy, a progressive interstitial
nephropathy has been observed among women in Belgium
after the intake of weight-reducing pills containing S. tetrandra
S. Moore. Phytochemical analyses of these pills resulted in the
identification of aristolochic acids (responsible for nephropathy)
instead of tetrandrine (responsible for weight reduction), confirming
the replacement of S. tetrandra (han fangji) by Aristolochia
fangchi (guang fangji/fangchi). These are different plants and the
chemical composition also different. Similarity in the nomenclature
of both these plants was only reason behind the substitution
(Vanherweghem et al., 1993; Debelle et al., 2002; Mosihuzzaman
and Choudhary, 2008).
This study is an attempt to compile an up-to-date and comprehensive
review of the genus Stephania that covers its traditional
medicinal uses, chemistry and pharmacology. Many plants of this
genus are pharmacologically known but chemically unknown and
vice-versa. Therefore, the scope of future research in this aspect is
also discussed here.
2. Traditional uses
In traditional medicine, most of the plants of the genus Stephania
have been used to treat a wide variety of ailments such as dysentery,
pyrexia, tuberculosis, diarrhea, dyspepsia, urinary diseases,
abdominal ills, asthma, ascariasis, dysmenorrhea, indigestion,
wounds, head-ache, sore-breasts and leprosy. The rhizome extract
of S. glabra (Roxb.) Miers has long been used as antidysenteric,
antipyretic, antiasthamatic and antituberculosis agent (Chopra et
al., 1958; Kirtikar and Basu, 2004). The aqueous concoction of the
powders of the dried rhizome of S. glabra (Roxb.) Miers and aerial
root of Trichosanthes multiloba are used as an anthelmintic against
intestinal worms in Meghalaya (Northeast India) (Das et al., 2004).
S. venosa (Blume) Spreng is often used as a bitter tonic (Pharadai et
al., 1985). The stems of S. dinklagei Diels possess vermifuge, aphrodisiac,
analgesic and sedative effects whereas the leaves has been