Curculigo Species: A Wide Spectrum Research Review

Abstract

Tropical regions of Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas are rich with Curculigo species belongs to family Hypoxidaceae. There are six species are reported of Curculigo, out of which, Curculigo orchioides (Gaertn.), is the most popular medicinally used species and commonly known as ‘kali musali’. Curculigo rhizome has been used for management for different ailments including for impotency, joint pain related problems, and diarrhoea in Chinese medicine and also used as a powerful immune-modulator with aphrodisiac property in the old traditional medical system. Present review covers the various aspects of Curculigo genus such as cultivation, phytochemical, pharmacognosy and biotechnological. After reviewing the medicinal value of Curculigo species, it can be concluded that the plant having tremendous potential for wide spectrum management of enormous diseases. The bioactive compound can be isolated and characterized for giving a model system for development of new drug hence this review will be useful for new drug discovery. The molecular aspect of the review will be helpful to identify the genuine plant material, which will be further used for development of novel herbal medicines. The illustration of Biotechnological approaches will be immensely applicable to develop new protocol for micro-propagation of this valuable and extinct plant species. The new and economically feasible technique for curculigoside extraction can be developed after knowing the basic knowledge of phytochemicals of this plant and will be given a source of entrepreneurship and empowerment of tribals. The developed technology for characterization and identification of bioactive principals of Curculigo species, will be useful for herbal based pharma industry, thus this review could be a mean to attain whole picture of Curculigo genus.