The Medicinal value of the Southern African asteraceae

Abstract

This dissertation comprises a literature study on the medicinal value of the southern African Asteraceae. It includes data on the medicinal uses of the Asteraceae species, chemical compounds isolated, the pharmacological action of extracts and in some cases the active compounds isolated from the extracts of species of Asteraceae. One of the objectives of this dissertation was to validate the use of indigenous Asteraceae species in traditional medicine. This was difficult to achieve due to a lack of pharmacological and chemical information on the southern African Asteraceae. From the little data available, a remarkable correlation between the pharmacological action of the plants and the traditional uses, was observed. Many species used for eye and skin diseases contain the phototoxic (antibiotic only in UVA light) compounds polyacetylenes and thiophenes. Polyacetylenes are common in the Asteraceae. Although the Asteraceae contains a vvide range of secondary compounds, only a few pharmacologically active compounds have been identified. It is evident that much IM>rk is still needed in this field.