Phytochemicals, Traditional Uses, Biological Effects, and Possible Molecular Mechanisms of Ephedra alata

Abstract

Nowadays, Ephedra species have been marked as encouraging natural material for research in the field of pharmacology. This work provides an overview of the botanical, traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacological properties, molecular mechanisms, and toxicity of Ephedra alata. The following databases were utilized to search for primary literature references: PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Scientific Information Database, Science Direct, Google, and Google Scholar. The present review demonstrates that various compounds have been extracted from E. alata, such as fatty acids, sphingolipids, volatile compounds, reducing sugars, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, and alkaloids. These natural compounds show valuable biological activities, such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antidiabetic, antihypertensive, anti-obesity, nephroprotective, hepatoprotective, antipyretic, analgesic, anti-acetylcholinesterase, antityrosinase, and anti-urease activities. Several mechanisms are proposed to understand the biological effects of E. alata. In summary, E. alata constitutes good natural material for utilization in food and medicine applications.

Keywords

Ephedra alata L. / Medicinal uses / Botanical characterization / Phyto-chemical / Pharmacology

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our gratitude and thanks to Professor Brahim Marzouk (Centre of Biotechnology of Borj Cedria) for his help.

Funding

No funds in any form, from any source, were used for this research work.

Conflict of interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest related to this publication.

Author contributions

WAW and MST conceived, designed the study, and wrote the man-uscript. WAW reviewed and edited the manuscript. All research was performed by the authors.

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