Bioactivities of Osbeckia octandra DC. Extracts

Abstract Osbeckia octandra DC. is a small shrub that belongs to the Melastomataceae family. This plant species has been used in Sri Lankan Ayurvedic medicine to treat diabetes, hemorrhoids, hepatitis, ascites, jaundice, other liver disorders, and hyperlipidemia. This work aims to present a comprehensive, systematic review of O. octandra . The electronic databases, including the Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, PubMed, and Semantic Scholar, were employed to identify the related published studies of O. octandra up to December 2023. Both in vitro and in vivo studies show that O. octandra has antihepatotoxic activity, immunomodulatory activity, antioxidant activity, cholinesterase inhibitory activity, protease inhibitory activity, and hepatoprotective activity. On the other hand, the phytochemistry of O. octandra is unknown. Furthermore, none of the active compounds have been identified for their reported pharmacological activities. Hence, further in vitro, in vivo , and clinical studies should be conducted on extracts, and active compounds should be identified from these extracts. Only limited scientific evidence is available for the ethnopharmacological uses of O. octandra . Therefore, this work provides the basis for carrying out further pharmacological activity research and phytochemistry analyses of this plant species.