Literature Review on the Phytochemistry and Pharmaco-Biological, Nutritional and Cosmetic Properties of Lippia multiflora and New Research Perspectives

Background: Lippia multiflora is a wild/spontaneous food plant with numerous pharmaco-therapeutic activities and rich in terpenic and phenolic bioactive compounds whose valorization as nutaceutical can help a better management of chronic diseases.

Objective: To make an inventory of the current knowledge on the plant in order to direct the future research in the hypothesis that this plant contains chemical groups which would act either individually or in synergy, in order to confer several properties to him of which the anti-sickle cell activity.

Methodology: A non-exhaustive bibliographic search for articles published on the plant was conducted in several electronic databases (Science Direct, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Google scholar, SciELO, etc.) using as search strategy the following keywords: Lippia multiflora, phytochemistry, pharmacology and toxicology.

Results and discussion: It appears from this study that the chemical composition of the essential oil is variable within the species L. multiflora. These chemical varieties also called chemotypes are endowed with numerous pharmacological properties (antifree radical, antibacterial, antiinflammatory, antiproliferative, hypotensive, antimalarial, antifungal activities, etc.). This plant also contains anti-sickle cell phytomarkers such as ursolic acid (a triterpene acid) and verbascoside (a phenolic compound). L. multiflora reduces oxidative stress by increasing the content of reduced glutathione (essential for the protection of erythrocytes) and nitric oxide (vasodilator effect).

Conclusion and perspectives: The results of this literature review show that in addition to its numerous documented biological properties, L. multiflora also reduces oxidative stress by increasing the content of glutathione and nitric oxide and can thus relieve sickle cell disease. However, the anti-sickle cell activity of this plant species has not yet been scientifically validated although the plant is used in the treatment of anemia in Traditional Medicine. Therefore, it is desirable that a more thorough study be carried out on L. multiflora in order to determine the different chemotypes from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and then to evaluate the anti-sickling, antihemolytic and anti-radical activities and the effect of these chemotypes on the osmotic fragility of sickle cell erythrocytes.