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Background Blood cleansing, purification, detoxification or strengthening is an ancient folkloric East African practice without any validated scientific underpinnings. This study was undertaken to retrieve ethnobotanical information and reported bioactivities of plants claimed to be blood purifiers, cleansers, detoxifiers and tonics in Eastern Africa and correlate their claimed use with scientific studies to find out whether there is any justification for their use in this ancient practice. Method An elaborate review was performed in electronic databases (PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, Springer Link, Wiley Online Library, Taylor &amp; Francis Online, SciFinder, Google Scholar, Web of Science) and the Google search engine to retrieve information on ethnomedicinal plants used in East Africa in blood purification, detoxification, cleansing or strengthening and their investigated bioactivities related to their use in this traditional practice. Results The search retrieved 74 plant species from 45 families distributed among 66 genera with some documented bioactivities, though, with little correlation with their traditional utilization in blood purification, cleansing, detoxification and strengthening. Some justification of the link between blood purification, cleansing, detoxification and strengthening and the use of the plants as antiplatelet aggregation, vasorelaxant, bronchodilatory, antihyperlipidaemic, cardioprotective, antiatherosclerotic and immunomodulatory agents were evident, but majorly antimicrobial activity has been investigated in most species. Thus, only 15 (20.2%) of the plant species ( Allium sativum ,  Moringa oleifera ,  Olea capensis ,  Clausena anisata ,  Centella asiatica ,  Nasturtium officinale ,  Solanum nigrum ,  Withania somnifera ,  Rubus apetalus ,  Delonix elata ,  Persia americana ,  Aloe vera ,  Azadirachta indica ,  Echinacea angustifolia  and  Dioscorea bulbifera ) could be directly correlated with studies pertaining to blood health. Conclusion Medicinal plants used in blood purification, cleansing, detoxification and strengthening in East Africa play a holistic role in rejuvenation of overall human health. Few studies have examined their bioactivities pertaining to blood health. Thus, bioactivities and pharmacological activities (such as blood thinning, hypolipemic, cardioprotective, immunomodulatory, tonic and renoprotective properties) and phytochemicals of the claimed plants warrant further research as these could lead to discovery of chemical scaffolds of lead compounds that can be used in modern blood purification.

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East African quintessential plants claimed to be used as blood purifiers, cleansers, detoxifiers and tonics: an appraisal of ethnobotanical reports and correlation with reported bioactivities