Review
Persicaria hydropiper (L.) Delarbre: A review on traditional uses, bioactive chemical constituents and pharmacological and toxicological activities

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jep.2019.112516Get rights and content

Abstract

Ethnopharmacological relevance

Various plant parts of Persicaria hydropiper (L.) Delarbre (Syn.: Polygonum hydropiper L., Family: Polygonaceae) are used in traditional medicine systems as astringent, sedative, antiseptic and also for the treatment of respiratory disorders, edema and snake bites. It is also used as a spice in many Asian countries.

Aim of the review

The main aim of this review is to critically analyze the reported traditional uses, bioactive chemical constituents and pharmacological activities of P. hydropiper.

Materials and methods

Scientific database including PubMed, Scopus, SciFinder and secondary resources including books and proceedings were searched using relevant terminologies related to P. hydropiper and available scientific information was critically analyzed.

Results

Analysis of the scientific literature regarding the traditional uses revealed that P. hydropiper is used as a medicine and as spice in food preparations in various parts of the world. Various compounds including flavonoids, phenylpropanoid derivatives, and sesquiterpenoids among others were reported as active compounds. The extracts and compounds from P. hydropiper showed diverse biological activities including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, cytotoxic, antimicrobial activities, etc.

Conclusion

Although various research reports showed diverse biological activities for extracts and compounds obtained from P. hydropiper, very few studies were performed using animal models. Many of these studies also lacked proper experimental setting such as use of positive and negative controls and selection of dose as in most of these studies very high doses of extracts were administered. Further, as P. hydropiper is widely used in the treatment of snake bites and insect bites, such effects of extracts and/or compounds are not well explored. Future studies on P. hydropiper should be focused to establish the links between the traditional uses, active compounds and reported pharmacological activities.

Introduction

Ethnopharmacology, a source of knowledge-driven drug discovery, is playing a significant role in the search of drugs from plants, animals and other natural resources (Cordell and Colvard, 2005; Heinrich, 2010; Heinrich et al., 2009). The 2015 Nobel Prize for the discovery of antimalarial drug from Traditional Chinese Medicine, signifies the exciting and hidden potential of traditional therapies (Efferth et al., 2015). Although about 500,000 plant species are reported in the world, most of them are still to be explored (Mahesh and Satish, 2008). Nearly eighty percent of the world population uses alternative ways for treatment because of being economical, accessible and being relatively safer (Farnsworth et al., 1985). Medicinal plants, therefore, hold potential to fulfil the gap in the current medical practices as it may hold answers to some of the most deadly health issues (Khalil et al., 2014).

Different members of the family Polygonaceae have been widely studied for their pharmacological activities. Polygonaceae represents flowering plants, commonly referred as knotweed and smartweed. The name of the family Polygonaceae, comes from Polygonum genus, first coined by Antoine Laurent, a French botanist. The words “poly” and “gonum” mean “many” and “joints”, respectively. Polygonaceae comprises of about 1300 species distributed in 59 genera (The Plant List, http://www.theplantlist.org/). Members of Polygonaceae are distributed worldwide and represented by various genera including Eriogonum, Rumex, Coccoloba, Polygonum, Persicaria and Calligonum etc. Several species of Polygonaceae are used as ornamental plants while some are considered very important from therapeutic perspective. Among them, Persicaria hydropiper (L.) Delarbre (Synonym: Polygonum hydropiper L.) (Fig. 1) has gained tremendous attention due to its diverse phytochemistry and medicinal uses. P. hydropiper is also known as Water pepper or Smart pepper in English, “Bishkatali” in Bengali and has a cosmopolitan distribution (Oany et al., 2017). A careful review of the ethnomedicinal literature indicated various reported uses of P. hydropiper in epilepsy, edema, inflammation, headache, rheumatoid arthritis, chill, colic pain, fever, joint pain and other infectious diseases. It is also reported for use as central nervous system (CNS) stimulant, diuretic, anthelmintic and in the treatment of kidney diseases, hypertension, hemorrhoids, diarrhea, piles, bleeding, parasitic worms, and angina (Ayaz, Junaid, Ahmed, et al., 2014; Ayaz, Junaid, Subhan, et al., 2014; Kimura et al., 2014; Oany et al., 2017; Said et al., 2015; Xiao et al., 2017a).

Although it is widely used in traditional medicines and studied for chemical constituents and biological activities, the number of comprehensive reviews on P. hydropiper regarding its traditional uses, bioactive compounds and their mechanisms for various pharmacological activities are limited. The main aim of this review was to systematically analyze the reported traditional uses of this plant, bioactive constituents and pharmacological activities with special focus on neurological disorders.

Section snippets

Traditional uses as food and medicine

Analysis of the scientific literature regarding the traditional uses revealed that P. hydropiper is used as a medicine and as a spice in food in various parts of the world. Some of the traditional uses in Asian countries are given in Table 1. Plant as whole or different parts (roots, seeds, and aerial parts) were observed to be used in different traditional medicine systems. Due to its irritant properties, extract obtained from plant is reported to be used medicinally in Europe from centuries

Bioactive chemical constituents

Several classes of phytochemicals have been isolated and identified from different parts of P. hydropiper. The detailed list of these phytochemicals along with their chemical classes is given in Table 2.

Among them, flavonoids are one of the most studied chemical classes (Haraguchi et al., 1992). Persicarin, isolated from P. hydropiper, was the first sulfated flavonoid isolated from natural sources (Kawaguchi and Kim, 1937, 1940). Several other sulfated flavonoids are also reported further. For

Pharmacological studies

Plants belonging to Polygonaceae family have been widely studied for their pharmacological activities. There are many publications related to the different pharmacological activities of P. hydropiper which are mainly related to anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antinociceptive activities among others. Few studies have also reported its activities related to neuropharmacology. Some of these activities are explained in detail in following sections.

Heavy metals content and phytotoxicity

Ayaz et al. reported contents of the heavy metals including lead (Pb), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), nickel (Ni) in crude dried powder of the whole plant, crude methanolic extract, various fractions including n-hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate, n-butanol and aqueous fractions as well as soil samples via atomic absorption spectrophotometer (Ayaz, Junaid, Subhan, et al., 2014). The heavy metals concentrations were Pb (not detected), Cd (0.35 ± 0.154 ppm), Cu (7.21 ± 0.23 ppm),

Conclusions and future prospects

P. hydropiper is reported to be used as traditional medicine and food from centuries in different parts of the world. Whole plants as well as separate plant parts were found to be utilized for various medicinal purposes. It is also used as spice in many Asian countries. However, due to its irritant properties, P. hydropiper is recommended to be used medicinally with cautions (Mitchell and Dean, 1978). Various compounds including flavonoids, phenyl propanoid derivatives and sesquiterpenoids were

Declaration of competing interest

Authors declare no conflict of interest.

References (80)

  • S.S. Ningthoujam et al.

    Traditional uses of herbal vapour therapy in Manipur, North East India: an ethnobotanical survey

    J. Ethnopharmacol.

    (2013)
  • N.H. Noor Hashim et al.

    LC-DAD-ESIMS/MS characterization of antioxidant and anticholinesterase constituents present in the active fraction from Persicaria hydropiper

    LWT - Food Sci. Technol. (Lebensmittel-Wissenschaft -Technol.)

    (2012)
  • K. Ono et al.

    Catechin production in cultured Polygonum hydropiper cells

    Phytochemistry

    (1998)
  • Z.F. Peng et al.

    Antioxidant flavonoids from leaves of Polygonum hydropiper L

    Phytochemistry

    (2003)
  • N. Prota et al.

    Comparison of the chemical composition of three species of smartweed (genus Persicaria) with a focus on drimane sesquiterpenoids

    Phytochemistry

    (2014)
  • E. Rahman et al.

    Antinociceptive activity of Polygonum hydropiper

    Fitoterapia

    (2002)
  • M.S. Said et al.

    A new butenolide cinnamate and other biological active chemical constituents from Polygonum glabrum

    Nat. Prod. Res.

    (2015)
  • H. Xiao et al.

    Biological evaluation of phytoconstituents from Polygonum hydropiper

    Nat. Prod. Res.

    (2017)
  • A. Yagi et al.

    Antioxidative sulphated flavonoids in leaves of Polygonum hydropiper

    Phytochemistry

    (1994)
  • X. Yang et al.

    Simultaneous determination of nine flavonoids in Polygonum hydropiper L. samples using nanomagnetic powder three-phase hollow fibre-based liquid-phase microextraction combined with ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry

    J. Pharm. Biomed. Anal.

    (2011)
  • W. Zhang et al.

    Anti-inflammatory effects of an extract of Polygonum hydropiper stalks on 2,4,6-trinitrobenzenesulphonic acid-induced intestinal inflammation in rats by inhibiting the NF- κ B pathway

    Mediators of Inflammation

    (2018)
  • M. Ayaz et al.

    Phenolic contents, antioxidant and anticholinesterase potentials of crude extract, subsequent fractions and crude saponins from Polygonum hydropiper L

    BMC Complement Altern. Med.

    (2014)
  • M. Ayaz et al.

    Heavy metals analysis, phytochemical, phytotoxic and anthelmintic investigations of crude methanolic extract, subsequent fractions and crude saponins from Polygonum hydropiper L

    BMC Complement Altern. Med.

    (2014)
  • M. Ayaz et al.

    Comparative chemical profiling, cholinesterase inhibitions and anti-radicals properties of essential oils from Polygonum hydropiper L: a Preliminary anti- Alzheimer's study

    Lipids Health Dis.

    (2015)
  • M. Ayaz et al.

    Chemical profiling, antimicrobial and insecticidal evaluations of Polygonum hydropiper L

    BMC Complement Altern. Med.

    (2016)
  • M. Ayaz et al.

    Anti-Alzheimer’s studies on ß-sitosterol isolated from Polygonum hydropiper L

    Front. Pharmacol.

    (2017)
  • M. Ayaz et al.

    Neuroprotective and anti-aging potentials of essential oils from aromatic and medicinal plants

    Front. Aging Neurosci.

    (2017)
  • N. Aziman et al.

    Phytochemical profiles and antimicrobial activity of aromatic Malaysian herb extracts against food-borne pathogenic and food spoilage microorganisms

    J. Food Sci.

    (2014)
  • C.S. Barnes et al.

    The structure of polygodial: a new sesquiterpene dialdehyde from Polygonum hydropiper l

    Aust. J. Chem.

    (1962)
  • R.K. Choudhary et al.

    An ethnomedicinal inventory of knotweeds of Indian Himalaya

    J. Med. Plants Res.

    (2011)
  • G.A. Cordell et al.

    Some thoughts on the future of ethnopharmacology

    J. Ethnopharmacol.

    (2005)
  • N. Van Duong

    Medicinal Plants of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos

    (1993)
  • V. Duraipandiyan et al.

    Antimicrobial activity of confertifolin from Polygonum hydropiper

    Pharm. Biol.

    (2010)
  • N.R. Farnsworth et al.

    Medicinal plants in therapy

    Bull. World Health Organ.

    (1985)
  • S. Gairola et al.

    A cross-cultural analysis of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh (India) medicinal plant use

    J. Ethnopharmacol.

    (2014)
  • K. Ganesan et al.

    Ethnobotanical studies on folkloric medicinal plants in Nainamalai, Namakkal district, Tamil nadu, India

    Trends in Phytochemical Research

    (2017)
  • H. Haraguchi et al.

    Antioxidative substances in leaves of Polygonum hydropiper

    J. Agric. Food Chem.

    (1992)
  • H. Haraguchi et al.

    Effect of Polygonum hydropiper sulfated flavonoids on lens aldose reductase and related enzymes

    J. Nat. Prod.

    (1996)
  • M. Heinrich

    Galanthamine from Galanthus and other Amaryllidaceae--chemistry and biology based on traditional use. The Alkaloids

    Chem. Biol.

    (2010)
  • M. Heinrich et al.

    Best practice in research – overcoming common challenges in phytopharmacological research

    J. Ethnopharmacol.

    (2020)
  • Cited by (32)

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text