Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology

Medicinal plants are the oldest source of pharmacologically active compounds. They are provided with the only source of medicinally useful compounds for centuries. Ethnobotanic and chemotaxonomic studies may provide clues to prospection of bioactive molecules of interest. Plants synthesize an extensive array of secondary metabolites, or natural products and many of them have pharmacological properties. These bioactive compounds can be found in plants traditionally used for medical purposes. One plant family with considerable chemical potential is the Rubiaceae. It is a large plant family, with 13,143 registered species distributed in 611 genera. Rubiaceae species are distributed mostly in tropical and humid locations. Plants belonging to this family can be easily recognized by their opposite leaves, interpetiolar stipules, and inferior ovary. Psychotria species (Rubiaceae) one of the largest genera of angiosperms is taxonomically complex due to the unwieldy number of species and the relative lack of morphological characteristics is available to establish subgrouping. Unexplored biodiversity and high levels of endemism combined with ethnopharmacological knowledge from traditional communities, lead to high potential for drug discovery in this region. Some plants from the neotropics are already booming in the international scenario. This review gives a detailed study of species, alkaloids and pharmacological activity of Psychotria species.