Phytopharmacological review of iridoids isolated from plumeria genus

Plumeria (Apocynaceae), a genus of scenery plants commonly known as frangipani, comprises around 8 species which are mainly distributed in tropical countries. Plumeria species are well known to be have various pharmacological properties such as diarrhea, gonorrhea, syphilis, venereal sores, leprosy, fever, cough, tracheitis, infective hepatitis, purgative, bronchitis, dysentery, blood disorders, tumor and respiratory ect. These pharmacological properties are due to the presence of certain secondary metabolites such as iridoids, alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, tannins, steroids and their glycosides. Literature shows that Plumeria genus is a good source of iridoids. This review reports the iridoids and their biological activities isolated from various species of the genus Plumeria till to date. It is also found that iridoids are also present in plants of various other families, and the plants that posses iridoids have significant biological activities. (author)