Abstract:
We provide details of 306 plant species used to treat and manage
respiratory infections and related symptoms in South Africa.About
a third of the documented species belong to four plant families,
namely the Asteraceae(15.7%),Fabaceae(6.1%),Lamiaceae(5.6%)
and Amaryllidaceae(4.6%).An overwhelming majority of docu
mented species are used as medicine to treat tuberculosis(40.2%),
cough (36.6%),fever(29.1%),chest complaints(28.8%)and cold
(23.2%). The potentially bioactive phytochemical compounds and
associated pharmacological properties of the documented plant
species are also provided.This data demonstrated strong correla
tion between phytochemistry, pharmacological properties and
medicinal uses of more than three quarters(80.1%)of the docu
mented species used against respiratory infections and related
symptoms.Data of this nature can be used to identify research
gaps on ethnomedicinal uses,phytochemistry and pharmacologi
cal properties of plant species used as herbal medicines.
