The genus Onosma belongs to the Boraginaceae family and contains over 230 species. The present review sheds light on the ethnopharmacology, phytoconstituents, bioactivity, and toxicology of the Onosma species from previous investigations. Furthermore, the paper also highlights the unresolved issues for the future investigations. The review included previous studies of the genus Onosma available from Google Scholar and Baidu Scholar, Science Direct, SciFinder, Wiley Online Library, and Web of Science. Until now, more than 200 chemical compounds have been detected from the genus Onosma, including naphthoquinone (33), flavonoids (30), hydrocarbon (23), phenolic (22), ester (17), alkaloids (20), aromatics (12), carboxylic acid (11), fatty acids (9), terpenoids (10), while the most important ones are rosmarinic, ferulic, protocatechuic, chlorogenic, caffeic, p-coumaric acids, and apigenin. The Onosma species are reported as traditional medicine for wound healing, heart disease, and kidney disorders, while the pharmacological investigations revealed that the extracts and the phytochemicals of Onosma species have different therapeutic properties including antioxidant, enzyme inhibitory, antitumor, hepatoprotective, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial actions. The summarized knowledge in this review provides valuable ideas for the current and future drug discovery and a motivation for further investigation on the genus Onosma.

Peptic ulcer disease is the greatest digestive disorder that has increased incidence and recurrence rates across all nations. Prangos pabularia (L.) has been well documented as a folkloric medicinal herb utilized for multiple disease conditions including gastric ulcers. Hence, the target study was investigation the gastro-protection effects of root extracts of Prangos pabularia (REPP) on ethanol-mediated stomach injury in rats. Sprague Dawley rats were clustered in 5 cages: A and B, normal and ulcer control rats pre-ingested with 1 % carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC)); C, reference rats had 20 mg/kg omeprazole; D and E, rats pre-supplemented with 250 and 500 mg/kg of REPP, respectively. After one hour, group A was given orally 1 % CMC, and groups B-E were given 100 % ethanol. The ulcer area, gastric acidity, and gastric wall mucus of all stomachs were determined. The gastric tissue homogenates were examined for antioxidant and MDA contents. Moreover, the gastric tissues were analyzed by histopathological and immunohistochemically assays. Acute toxicity results showed lack of any toxic effects or histological changes in rats exposed to 2 and 5 g/kg of REPP ingestion. The ulcer controls had extensive gastric mucosal damage with lower gastric juice and a reduced gastric pH. REPP treatment caused a significant reduction of the ethanol-induced gastric lacerations represented by an upsurge in gastric mucus and gastric wall glycoproteins (increased PAS), a decrease in the gastric acidity, leukocyte infiltration, positively modulated Bax and HSP 70 proteins, consequently lowered ulcer areas. REPP supplementation positively modulated oxidative stress (increased SOD, CAT, PGE2, and reduced MDA) and inflammatory cytokines (decreased serum TNF-α, IL-6, and increased IL-10) levels. The outcomes could be scientific evidence to back-up the folkloric use of A. Judaica as a medicinal remedy for oxidative stress-related disorders (gastric ulcer).

The Papaver L. plant (Papaver decaisnei) has ethnobotanical records in many countries including Iraqi Kurdistan. The current study investigates the methanol (99.9) extracts (10μg/mL) of roots, leaves, and flowers of Papaver decaisnei in terms of phytochemistry by gas chromatography-mass spectrophotometry GC-MS, in vitro antioxidant activity by radical scavenging and reducing power assays, and finally, the anticancer actions as IC₅₀ (inhibitory concentration at 50) against human colorectal adenocarcinoma (Caco-2), mammary cancer cells (MCF-7), and human cervical carcinoma (HeLa) cells. The results showed 22, 19, and 17 chemicals for roots, leaves, and flowers of P. decaisnei, respectively. The prevalent organic compounds of P. decaisnei were alkaloids (62.03), phenolics (55.43), fatty acids (42.51), esters (32.08), terpenoids (25.59), and phytosterols (15.68), namely, roemerine (70.44), 9,12,15-octadecatrien-1-ol (37.45), hexadecanoic acid (33.72), decarbomethoxytabersonine (24.49), and γ-sitosterol (11.22). The antioxidant activity of plant organs was within 39.1143.5μg/mL for DPPH, 135.4276.4μg/mL for ABTS, 12.434.3μg/mL for FRAP, and 42.675.8μg/mL for CUPRAC assays. The anticancer of P. decaisnei was found as 125.3388.4μg/mL against all tested cell lines (Caco-2, MCF-7, and HeLa). The detected alkaloids and bioactivity of P. decaisnei encourage future isolation of those remarkable alkaloids (reomerine) for potential usage in the pharmaceutical industry.

Herbal medicine is still widely practiced in the Kurdistan Region, Iraq, especially by people living in villages in mountainous regions. Seven taxa belonging to the genus Teucrium (family Lamiaceae) are commonly employed in the Kurdish traditional medicine, especially to treat jaundice, stomachache and abdominal problems. We report, in this paper, a comprehensive account about the chemical structures and bioactivities of most representative specialized metabolites isolated from these plants. These findings indicate that Teucrium plants used in the folk medicine of Iraqi Kurdistan are natural sources of specialized metabolites that are potentially beneficial to human health.

Papaver decaisnei (P. decaisnei) has been used as folkloric medicine for many health issues including gastric problems. The current study investigates the gastroprotective roles of P. decaisnei against ethanol-induced ulcers in rodents. Sprague Dawley rats (30) were separated into five groups: the normal group (G1) and the ulcer control group (G2) were orally administered 0.5% carboxymethylcellulose (CMC); the reference group (G3) was administered 20 mg/kg of Omeprazole; two experimental groups were fed with 200 mg/kg (G4) and 400 mg/kg (G5) of the P. decaisnei extract (PDE), respectively. Next, the rats were given absolute ethanol and sacrificed for the analysis of the gastric mucosal injury through microscopic, enzymatic, histologic, and immunohistochemistry assays. The ulcer controls showed significant superficial hemorrhagic gastric mucosal lesions, with a decreased gastric wall mucus and edema production, whereas fewer were found for the reference and plant-treated rats. Furthermore, the PDE pre-treated rats had a significantly reduced the periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) staining intensity, produced the upregulation of the HSP70 protein, and the downregulation of the Bax protein expressions in the stomach epithelium. P. decaisnei displayed a significant role in the upregulation of endogenous antioxidant enzymes (SOD, CAT, and PGE2), significantly reduced malondialdehyde (MDA), TNF-a, IL-6, and upraised the IL-10 levels. Based on the positive impacts, the PDE can be proposed as the protective/treatment agent against gastric ulcers and stomach lesions.

Microwave-assisted extraction (MAE) was chosen to isolate secondary natural compounds from Nonea pulmonarioides. MAE is an efficient approach compared to maceration. In our study of N. pulmonarioides, the FolinCiocalteu and trichloroaluminum techniques were used to determine the total phenolic and flavonoid contents. Antioxidant activity was determined by the β-carotene/linoleic acid test. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was measured using the microwell dilution assay method. Overall, MAE may represent a substantially faster extraction system (5min) with an even greater extraction yield than maceration extraction (24h). Phytochemical screening indicated the existence of classes of several secondary metabolites. The methanol extract had a high total phenolic content (TPC) of 113.33±1.06μg of gallic acid equivalents (GAE)/mg of dry plant weight, while the total flavonoid content (TFC) in the acetone extract was 44.26±0.88μg of quercetin equivalent (QE)/mg of the dry plant. The antioxidant activity data correlated well with the acetone extract (32.41±0.93, I) compared to the other extracts. The antimicrobial assay (MIC) results showed high activity of the extract against Candida albicans for the petroleum ether extract, which was significantly higher than against other microorganisms. The quantitative gas chromatography-mass spectrophotometry (GC-MS) analysis of the extracts confirmed that the most abundant compound in the methanol extract was ethyl tridecanoate (45.94), while nonadecane was the predominant compound in the acetone (35.7) and the petroleum ether (18.34) extracts.