A REVIEW ON PHYTOMORPHOLOGICAL, PHYTOCHEMICAL AND PHYTOPHARMACOLOGICAL PROFILE OF IPOMOEA CARNEA AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVE

Phytopharmacology is the field of study of the effects of drugs on plants. The term has since changed its meaning to become an established field of drug research, where the active substances come from. The advantages of seeking medicines from plants are due both to the millions of years of co-evolution between plants and animals which has led to interactions between their bioactive molecules and the nature of enzyme driven synthesis leading to optically pure chiral molecules whose reactions in the mammalian body can be very specific. Phytomedicines were increasingly being established in modern medical science. The shrub Ipomoea carnea has been used traditionally for thousands of years. However, there are few scientific studies on this medicinal plant, and most of the information are scattered. In this review, I elaborately displayed the existing knowledge and recent progress in phytomorphology, bioactive compounds and therapeutic actions of Ipomoea carnea. Ipomoea carnea plant possessed a wide range of pharmacological activity such as anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-oxidant, anti-cancer, anti-convulsant, immunomodulatory, anti-diabetic, hepatoprotective, anti-inflammatory, anxiolytic, sedative and wound healing, anti HIV activities. Key Words: Phytopharmacology; bioactive molecules; chiral molecules; phytomorphology; immunomodulatory etc.