Muehlenbeckia volcanica (Benth.) Endl .: Review of a Peruvian Polygonaceae of scientific interest

Abstract

Background: Muehlenbeckia volcanica is a medicinal plant popularly used for its anti-inflammatory and antiallergic properties, however, there is little scientific information to support these and other attributable properties. As it is a species recommended by the Social Security of Health of Peru (EsSalud), it is important to unify the knowledge reported both in databases of scientific articles and repositories of work carried out in Peruvian universities, in order to enrich knowledge about this plant species and direct future research.

Methods: Information regarding the plant species and species of the same genus was selected from databases such as Scopus, ScienceDirect, Scielo, PubMed and GoogleScholar, a search carried out with the terms Muehlenbeckia volcanica and Muehlenbeckia.

Results: In the search carried out in the Scopus database, with the terms Muehlenbeckia volcanica, only three reported scientific articles were found, in ScienceDirect six, Scielo only one and in databases such as PubMed there were no reports. Although there is information on its anti-inflammatory activity, there is no identification of active components of scientific relevance, as well as information that supports other pharmacological activities such as antimicrobial, antiviral, hypoglycemic and antioxidant.

Conclusions: It is necessary to carry out toxicity studies to provide greater support for its safe use in both adults and minors, making it clear that, although it is true that it is a plant species, natural products are not exempt from present side effects due to improper use.

Keywords: Polygonaceae, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, diabetes, phytotherapy, traditional medicine, ethnobotany.