Review on Ethnomedicinal, Phytochemical and Toxicological Approaches of Xanthium Species

Genus Xanthium (Asteraceae family) consists of 25 species that are distributed worldwide. Among these, only a few species, such as Xanthium strumarium and Xanthium spinosum have been extensively investigated for their pharmacological and phytochemical properties. These studies have revealed various activities, including analgesic, anti-inflammatory, anti-arthritic, cytotoxic, anti-angiogenic, and antiviral effects. This review covers most of the identified chemical constituents of plants from the genus Xanthium reported in literature between the years 2000 and 2026. In addition, the biological activities of the different species of genus Xanthium are presented and discussed too. Researchers will be able so to examine the potential of the Xanthium genus in order to improve human health through more in vivo human studies. A search was performed across different databases, including, Scopus, Science Direct and PubMed from the year 2000 mostly till 2026. Second, articles were chosen based on specific related criteria. As this is a review article, we include most types of articles relevant to our subject. Lastly, the pertinent data for the review was arranged in a methodical manner. In addition, this study is descriptive, qualitative and not quantitative. Inclusion Criteria: Original research articles and comprehensive reviews published in peer-reviewed journals. Studies focused explicitly on Xanthium species, reporting phytochemical profiling and biological activity. In vitro or in vivo pharmacological evaluations conducted under standardized conditions Investigations into structure-activity relationships. Exclusion Criteria: Non-English articles without verified translations. Case reports or opinion pieces without original data. The relevant information for the review was systematically organized. Sesquiterpenes and flavonoids as main active constituents are cited and discussed due to their important anti-oxidant activities. This literature review discussed the biological constituents and pharmacology of genus Xanthium. We recommend to carry out more studies in order to isolate more compounds from this genus exerting remarkable pharmacological activities and to study their mechanism of action.