2019, Vol. 7, Issue 3, Part B

author(s)
MM Maidul Islam, Nasrin Akter Shova, Taufiq Rahman, ABM Anwarul Bashar and Mohammed Rahmatullah

abstract
Plants have always been a source of drugs possibly from the advent of human beings. Even in recent times, many important allopathic drugs have been discovered from plants. All plants produce secondary metabolites, which metabolites can have a diverse range of pharmacological activities. Recent times are witnessing not only emergence of new diseases like bird flu, Nipah, Ebola to name only a few, but also emergence of drug-resistant vectors of old diseases like common cold, enteric diseases, and parasitic diseases. At the same time, diseases like diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disorders and Alzheimers have started to reach or have already reached endemic proportions. The Crescentia genus is a less studied genus and has only a few species within the genus. Nevertheless two of the species, namely Crescentia cujete and Crescentia alata have been found to have a diverse range of bioactive phytochemicals. This review attempts to collate various traditional uses of the two plants, their reported phytochemicals and the pharmacological activity studies of the two plants and plant parts with a view to spur scientific interest in this genus leading to novel drug discoveries.