Phytochemical and Pharmacological Studies of Campylospermum Species(Ochnaceae): An Updated Review

The genus Campylospermum (Ochnaceae) comprises about 65 species, including several with a long ethnomedicinal history in tropical regions of the world. The present review compiles the information available in the literature (until January 2025) on ethnomedicinal recommendations, phytochemical profiles, and biological activities, and suggests future prospects for the therapeutic applications of Campylospermum species (CS). Previous work revealed that 66 compounds, belonging to diverse families of secondary metabolites such as flavonoids, alkaloids, nitrile glucosides, steroids, and others, have been isolated and characterized in the genus. The structures of these compounds were determined by analysing their mass spectrometric (MS) and spectroscopic data and by comparison with those previously reported in the literature. DFT analysis was used to establish the structural conformation of calanthumidole 52. Some pure compounds, as well as crude extracts of the CS, have shown antimicrobial, cytotoxic, antileishmanial, and antimalarial activities by using disc-diffusion/agar-dilution assays, brine shrimp assay, parasite lactate-dehydrogenase (pLDH) assay, and Alamar blue assay, respectively. CS appears to be a good reservoir of flavonoids (59.1%) like amentoflavone, which moderately inhibits the promastigote form of Leishmania infantum. CS is used in folk medicine as a laxative, purgative, analgesic, and aphrodisiac, as well as for the treatment of various diseases, including dysentery, toothache, diarrhea, rheumatism, gastric pain, gonorrhea, icterus, whitlow, and malaria. This review mainly reports the known isolated and characterized compounds from CS and their biological activities, providing a reference for researchers worldwide to undertake further investigation and evaluate other CS species as a source of new bioactive compounds.