Medicinal Plants for Mitigating Pain and Inflammatory-Related Conditions: An Appraisal of Ethnobotanical Uses and Patterns in South Africa.

In South Africa, traditional medicine remains the first point of call for a significant proportion of the population seeking primary healthcare needs. This is particularly important for treating common conditions including pain and inflammation which are often associated with many disease conditions. This review focuses on the analysis of the trend and pattern of plants used for mitigating pain and inflammatory-related conditions in South African folk medicine.

Bioactive molecules derived from smoke and seaweed Ecklonia maxima showing phytohormone-like activity in Spinacia oleracea L.

Bioactive compounds such as karrikinolide (KAR from smoke) and eckol (from the seaweed Ecklonia maxima) show promising effects on several important crop plants. These plant growth-stimulating organic biomolecules, along with crude extracts (smoke-water and Kelpak product prepared from Ecklonia maxima), were tested on spinach plants. Eckol sprayed at 10 M significantly increased all the growth and biochemical parameters examined compared to control spinach plants.

Identification and characterization of potential bioactive compounds from the leaves of Leucosidea sericea.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Leucosidea sericea is a southern African tree used for treating different diseases including microbial infections and inflammatory-related conditions.

Aim Of The Study: To isolate and identify the chemicals in Leucosidea sericea which possibly account for the diverse therapeutic effects of the species.

Materials And Methods: Leaf material was extracted using 20% methanol and subsequently partitioned with different solvents (hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate and butanol).

Enhancing growth, phytochemical constituents and aphid resistance capacity in cabbage with foliar application of eckol--a biologically active phenolic molecule from brown seaweed.

Although foliar application of seaweed extracts on plant growth and development has and is extensively studied, reliable knowledge and understanding of the mode of action of particular compound(s) responsible for enhancing plant growth is lacking. A brown seaweed Ecklonia maxima is widely used commercially as a biostimulant to improve plant growth and crop protection. Eckol, a phenolic compound isolated from E.