Olax dissitiflora Oliv. (small-fruited olax): Current status and future prospects as medicinal plant

Olax dissitiflora Oliv. (O. dissitiflora) has several medicinal uses, some of them known since prehistoric times. The present review compiles existing knowledge of the chemical and pharmacological properties, current medicinal uses, and further use potential and applications of O. dissitiflora. Multiple searches on existing literature on the medicinal, phytochemistry and pharmacological properties of O. dissitiflora were conducted in online databases such as Scopus, JSTOR, PubMed, Google Scholar and Science Direct as well as using pre-electronic literature sources obtained from the university library. This study showed that the bark, leaves, roots and twigs of O. dissitiflora are used as aphrodisiac, emetic, mosquito repellent and purgative, and as traditional medicines against dental problems, gonorrhoea, hernia, venereal diseases and wounds. The phytochemical evaluation of the plant revealed that it contains reducing sugars, alkaloids, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, quinones, saponins, steroids, tannins, terpenoids, 21-epimachaerinic acid, oleanolic acid, hederagenin, oleanolic acid 3-O-glucuronide, amphotericin, santalbic acid, exocarpic acid and octadic-9,11-diynoic acid. The pharmacological assessments showed that the crude extracts and phytochemical compounds isolated from the species have antibacterial, antifungal, antiplasmodial, larvicidal and adulticidal activities. The collected ethnomedicinal and ethnopharmacological properties of O. dissitiflora documented in this review will assist to understand the therapeutic relevance and potential of the species as well as providing baseline data required for ethnopharmacological assessments required in the discovery of novel plant-based health products. There is also need for more studies focusing on phytochemistry, pharmacological properties and toxicological evaluations, in vivo and clinical research on O. dissitiflora to compliment and validate the ethnomedicinal properties of the species.