Pharmacology and phytochemistry of the Nitraria genus (Review)

Plants from the Nitraria genus, members of the Zygophyllaceae family, grow naturally in Europe, Africa, Australia and the central Asian desert. Previous pharmacological research has provided evidence that members of the Nitraria genus have numerous beneficial effects. In the present review, the pharmacological and phytochemical studies of Nitraria were presented and assessed. The review was written using information published between 1968 and 2013 from a number of reliable sources, including ScienceDirect, Springer, PubMed, EMBASE and CNKI. Numerous compounds, such as alkaloids and flavonoids have been isolated from the plants of this genus in the past, and multiple members of these constituents have been demonstrated to exert antitumor or anti-oxidative activities. The extracts of plants of the Nitraria genus possess antitumor, antiproliferative, anti-oxidative, antifatigue, anti-mutagenic, antimicrobial, hypotensive, hepatoprotective, lipid-lowering and hypoglycemic effects. However, the possible active components in the fraction and the molecular mechanisms require further investigation prior to their use in clinical practice.