A review on Ethno-Botany, Pharmacology and Phytochemistry of Cleome Viscosa Linn. (Cleomaceae)

Cleome viscosa Linn. (CLEOMACEAE) is distributed throughout the plain of India, mostly on the edges of orchards and follow fields. (Nadkarni, 1982). The stem gets clothed with glandular and simple hairs. The plant is popular remedy for a variety of ailments as documented in ethno-botanical surveys and traditional systems of medicine, such as Ayurveda and Unani (Chatterjee and Prakashi, 1981). The present review is a comprehensive account of the traditional uses and ethno-botanical, phytochemical and pharmacological investigations carried out on this plant.

• Uses described in traditional medicine: The indigenous knowledge of many traditional communities has been documented as Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and other systems outside India. In the Ayurveda, Cleome viscosa is considered to possess cooling, stomachic, laxative, diuretic and anthelmintic properties (Anonymous, 1978). It is reported to be useful in the treatment of malarial fevers, skin diseases, laprosy, blood diseases and uterine problems (Kirtikar and Basu, 1984). It is also documented to remove ―kapha‖ (phlegm) and to cure earache (Anonymous, 2001).

• Uses ascribed in folkloric medicine: The leaves are used for the treatment of boils (Maheshwari, 1989), earache (Singh, 1945; Shah, 1984), headache (Ramchandran and Nair, 1981), ulcers (Rajwar, 1983) and wounds (Bedi, 1978). The seeds are documented to be used in the treatment of helminthic infections, convulsions, fever and diarrhoea (Singh, 1945, Shah et al., 1983, Malhotra and Moorthy, 1973).

• Chemical constituents: The structures of prime chemical constituents are shown in figure-1. Gupta and Dutt (1938) reported two chemical constituents i.e viscocic and viscosin from the seeds. Cleosandrin and cleomiscosin have been also isolated from its seed by Ray et al. (1980) and Ramchandran, (1979). A new glycoside called eriodictyol-5-rhamnoside was isolated from entire plant of Cleome viscosa by Srivastava and Srivastava (1979)

• Pharmacological activities: Cleome viscosa has been screened for various pharmacological activities and found to possess significant activities as analyesic, antimicrobial, antidiarrhoeal and hepatoprotective activities. The various pharmacological activities reported for this plant are given in table-2 below :

Analgesic Entire Plant Parimala Devi et al., 2003 Antimicrobial Leaves Sudhakar et al., 2006; Williams et al., 2003. Antidiarrhoeal Entire plant Devi et al., 2002. Hepatoprotective Seeds Sengottuvelu et al., 2007

The methanolic extract of entire plants of Cleome viscosa was evaluated. The result of the study showed significant activity of the extract at the higher concentration of 400 mg/ml as compared to diclofenac sodium (Parimaladevi, et al., 2003).

Sudhakar et al. (2006) have tested the ethnolic extract of Cleome viscosa leaves for antimicrobial activity. The extract exhibited antimicrobial activity particularly significant against E. Coli and Proteus vulgaris. In antoher study, Williams et al., 2003 evaluated the hexane extracts its leave for antibacterial activity. The existing extract was potent antibacterial agent. Samy et al., (1999) evaluated the aqueous extract of its aerial part at the concentrations of 30 and 40 mg/ml for antimicrobial activity and the results showed maximum inhibition against Aeromonas hydrophila and Bacillus cereus.

rats. Methanolic extract showed significant inhibition against castor oil induced diarrhoiea (Devi et al., 2002).

A study was conducted to evaluate the hepatoprotective potential of the aqueous seed extract of Cleome viscosa against carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced liver damage in rats. The extract (200ml/kg) was administered ovally to the animal with hepatotoxicity induced by CCl4 and silymarin (200ml/kg) as standard. The extract treated rats showed a significant reductions in serum enzyme aspirate aminotransferase (sengottuvelu et al., 2007).

1. Anonymous, 1978. The Ayurvedic Formulary of India, Part- 1, New Delhi. pp 22-23. 2. Anonymous, 2001. The Ayurvedic Pharmacopoiea of India, Part-1, Vol III, New Delhi, pp 34-35. 3. Bedi, SJ, 1978. Ethno-botany of the Ratan Mahal Hills, Gujarat. Econ. Bot. 32 : 278-84. 4. Chatterjee, A., Prakashi, SC, 1991. The Treatise on Indian Medicinal Plants, Vol. I, New Delhi. CSIR. 5. Devi, BP, Boobinathan, R., Mandal, SC, 2002. Evaluation of anti-diarrhoeal activity of Cleome viscosa. Phytomed. 9 : 739-42. 6. Kirtikar, KR, Basu, BD, 1984. Indian Medicinal Plants, Vol-I. pp 181-85. 7. Malhotra, SK, Moorthy, S., 1973. Some useful and medicinal plant of chandrapun District, Maharashtra. Bull. Bot. Surv. Ind. 15: 13-21. 8. Nadkarni, AK, 982. The Indian Materia Medica, Vol.I, pp 351-52. 9. Parimaladevi, B., Boominathan, R., Mandal, SC, 2003. Studies on analyesic activity of Cleome viscosa. Fitoterapia 74: 262-66. 10. Parimaladevi, B, Boominathan, R, Mandal, SC, 2004. Study on he psychopharmalogical effect of Cleome viscosa extracts. Phytother. Res. 18 : 169-172. 11. Rajwar, GS, 1983. Low altitude medicinal plants of south Garhwal. Bull. Med. Ethno-Bot. Res. 4 : 14-28. 12. Ramchandran, VS, Nair VI, 1981. Ethno-botanical Observation on Irulars of Tamil Nadu. Econ. Tax. Bot. 2 : 183-190. 13. Ray, AB. et al., 1980. Structure of Cleomiscosin of Cleome viscosa seeds. Tetraderom Lett. 21 : 4477-80. 15. Sengothevelu, S., et al., 2007. Hepatoprotetive activity of Cleome viscosa against CCl4 induced hepatotoxicity. Pharma. Meg. 3 : 121-124. 16. Shah, GL, 1984. Some economically important plants of Salsette Island, Bombay. Journ. Tax. Bot. 5 : 753-65. 17. Shah, GL, Yadav, SS, Badri, N., 1983. Medicinal plant from Dahanu Forest, Maharashta. Eco. Tax. Bot. 4 : 141-51. 18. Singh, H., 1945. Some useful wild plants of Delhi Province. Ind. Journ. Agric. Sci. 15 : 297-307. 19. Sudhakar, M., Rao, CV, Rao, PM, Raju, BD, 2006. Evaluation of antimicrobial activity of Cleome viscosa. Fitoterapia 77 : 47-49. 20. Williams, LA. et al., 2003. Biological activities of an extract from Cleome viscosa. Naturwissenchaften 90 : 468-472.

Research Scholar, Dept. Biotechnology, M.U.Bodhgaya, Bihar