Aims of the study: In South Africa, the genus Helichrysum is widely used in traditional medicine. The uses
are well documented although renaming of species and the resulting confusing taxonomic nomenclature
may cause uncertainty as to which specific species was referred to in some reports. The aim of this paper
is to present a collated and coherent overview of the documented traditional uses of Helichrysum species
and to update the botanical identity of previously studied species.
Materials and methods: Databases (Scifinder, ISIWeb of Knowledge) and several bookswere used to collect
in information on South African Helichrysum species.
Results: The traditional uses, chemistry and biological activity of Helichrysum species have been summarized.
It was attempted to give clarity as to exactly which species is refer to in the ethnobotanical
literature.
Conclusions: Although a largenumber of ethnopharmacological uses have beendocumentedand the chemistry
of the genus has been studied extensively, only a few South African species have been investigated
for their biological activity.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:tut/oai:encore.tut.ac.za:d1000676 |
| Date | 10 June 2008 |
| Creators | Lourens, ACM, Viljoen, AM, van Heerden, FR |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | |
| Rights | Elsevier |
| Relation | Journal of Ethnopharmacology |
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