Therapeutic potential of Egletes viscosa (L.) less: a systematic review

Abstract

In Brazil, research with medicinal plants grew complete, mainly focused on the area of pharmacology, with application in several areas of health. Several studies have evidenced the capacity of medicinal plants for the development and supply of new drugs. Among these species, the Egletes viscosa (L.) Less, a promising botanical species, used mainly in the Brazilian Northeast, with therapeutic potential used in popular medicine. In this sense, the objective of this work was to compile the studies that reported the therapeutic potential of Egletes viscosa. It is used as electronic databases PubMed, Web of Science, SciELO and capes journals. The research was carried out between September and December 2021, the keywords were in Portuguese and English, using the following terms: Egletes viscosa or Macela, with the Boolean operator “or”. 217 publications distributed in the databases were identified, 72 duplicate articles were excluded. Only 24 articles were found in relation to the theme and were selected for reading the abstract/abstract. Of these, 21 articles were selected for full reading. After evaluation and reading, the study focused on 13 articles. In general, it was found that this vegetable has antibiotic, antinoceptive, antidermatitis, antidepressant, anxiolytic, anticancer, analgesic, gastroprotective, anti-inflammatory, anti-diarrheal, anti-anaphylactic, anti-thrombotic and anti-hepatotoxic activities. Its compounds can be used in the development of herbal medicines, however, studies are still underway.

Key words: medicinal plants; macela; phytotherapy.