Excoecaria agallocha L.: Bridging ethnopharmacology and therapeutic promises of a healing mangrove

Ethnopharmacological relevance

Excoecaria agallocha L., popularly known as ‘Blind-your-eye mangrove’ or ‘Milky-mangrove’, is a substantial mangrove species abundantly distributed around the coastal areas of the tropical and temperate zones of Asia, East Africa, Australia, and the Pacific regions. Several preparations from this plant have been used to treat numerous health disorders, both in preventive and curative measures, from ancient times, including epilepsy, ulcer, toothache, wound, leprosy, conjunctivitis, paralysis, dermatitis, mosquito-borne disease etc., which makes this plant a great candidate for further extensive research.

Aim of review

The key objective of this review is to assemble a comprehensive index of global distribution, morphological characteristics, ethnopharmacology, pharmacological activities of different solvent extracts and bioactive constituents of E. agallocha with the evaluation of remaining and the latest published literatures, which may guide in prospective research studies for the effective implementation of this plant extract and its isolated constituents in medical aspects. Thus, this compilation will be very helpful to the researchers for further botanical and phytochemical studies leading to future novel drug discovery and in the validation and implementation of the already established bioactivities.

Materials & methods

Bibliographic resources, including Google Scholar, Web of Science, PubMed, SCOPUS, and others, were thoroughly searched in order to get relevant material for this review on Excoecaria agallocha. Synonyms, taxonomy, and worldwide distribution data were obtained from websites such as GBIF and the India Biodiversity Portal. Furthermore, chemical structures were produced using ChemBio Draw Ultra 14.0, and the IUPAC names of the secondary metabolites that were found were verified using PubChem.

Results

Comprehensive phytochemical studies on various parts of E. agallocha have identified at least 235 phytoconstituents across diverse structural classes, including alkaloid, diterpenoids, flavonoids, organic fatty acids, phenolic acids, sterols, tannins, triterpenoids, and other miscellaneous compounds. Excoecaria agallocha L. also exhibits various prominent pharmacological and bioactivities like antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anticancer, anti-diabetic, anti-convulsant, anti-ulcer, anti-collagenase, non-specific immunity, sedative, anti-histamine release, anti-elastase, and hedgehog signaling inhibiting properties evident from several in vitro and in vivo research.

Conclusion

Excoecaria agallocha L. exhibits a broad spectrum of pharmacological activities, as inferred from thorough in vitro and in vivo studies. Its phytochemical diversity mirrors its enormous utility as a rich source of bioactive entities. With its multi-spectrum therapeutic activity, E. agallocha holds high potential for the discovery of new drugs. But for its complete exploitation as a drug, more bioassay-guided investigation, complemented by extensive clinical and toxicological studies, is needed. The present findings demand further research aimed at the development of safe and effective therapeutic drugs from this mangrove species.