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Abstract
Boscia salicifolia is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree widely used as herbal medicine in the Sahel and sub-Saharan Africa. The current study critically reviewed the botany, medicinal uses, phytochemistry and pharmacological activities of B. salicifolia. Literature on botany, medicinal uses, phytochemical and biological activities of B. salicifolia was collected from multiple internet sources including Elsevier, Google Scholar, SciFinder, Web of Science, Pubmed, BMC, Science Direct and Scopus. Complementary information was gathered from pre-electronic sources such as books, book chapters, theses, scientific reports and journal articles obtained from the University library. This study revealed that the species is used as an anthelmintic or dewormer and herbal medicine for parasitic diseases, eye problems, fertility, fever and malaria, gastro-intestinal problems, headache, skin diseases, sores and wounds, swellings, toothache and ethnoveterinary medicine. Ethnopharmacological research identified alkaloids, anthraquinones, flavonoids, saponins, tannins and several glycosides of the flavonols rhamnocitrin and rhamnetin from the leaves of B. salicifolia. The crude extracts of the species exhibited anthelmintic, antibacterial, antiplasmodial, antioxidant, uterotonic and cytotoxicity activities. Boscia salicifolia should be subjected to detailed phytochemical, pharmacological and toxicological evaluations aimed at correlating its medicinal uses with its phytochemistry and pharmacological activities.
Keywords: Boscia salicifolia, Capparaceae, Capparidaceae, herbal medicine, indigenous knowledge, Sahel, sub-Saharan Africa
INTRODUCTION
Boscia salicifolia Oliv. is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree belonging to the Capparaceae or Capparidaceae or caper family. The Capparaceae family contains 33 genera and approximately 700 species distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of the world.1-3 Boscia Lam. is a genus of shrubs or small trees consisting of 37 species, mostly in tropical and southern Africa, a few in Madagascar, one confined to Arabia, mostly in semi-arid or seasonally dry areas.2,4-7 Several Boscia species are used as herbal medicines in tropical Africa and these include B. albitrunca (Burch.) Gilg & Gilg-Ben., B. angustifolia, B. coriacea Graells, B. foetida Schinz, B. longifolia Hadj-Moust., B. madagascariensis (DC.) Hadj-Moust., B. mossambicensis Klotzsch., B. plantefolii Hadj-Moust., B. salicifolia Oliv. and B. senegalensis Lam.8-10 Iwu8 argued that the medicinal properties of Boscia species could be attributed to alkaloids, flavonoids, sesquiterpenes and their glycosides, sulphur compounds and lipids that are associated with the genus. Boscia angustifolia is regarded as a multipurpose species in the Sahel and sub-Saharan Africa used as human food, animal...