Biological Activities of Extracts from Sumac (Rhus spp.): A Review
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- Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
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This manuscript is a preprint. A published version is available at:
10.1007/s11130-007-0058-4 (Peer Reviewed) Published in Plant Foods for Human Nutrition, Volume 62, Number 4 / December, 2007.- Document Type:
- Manuscript
- Date:
- Received 06 August 2007 22:12 UTC; Posted 07 August 2007
- Subjects:
- Chemistry, Pharmacology, Plant Biology
- Abstract:
Sumac is the common name for a genus (Rhus) that contains over 250 individual species of flowering plants in the family Anacardiaceae. These plants are found in temperate and tropical regions worldwide, often grow in areas of marginal agricultural capacity, and have a long history of use by indigenous peoples for medicinal and other uses. The research efforts on sumac extracts to date indicate a promising potential for this plant family to provide renewable bioproducts with the following reported desirable bioactivities: antifibrogenic, antifungal, antiinflammatory, antimalarial, antimicrobial, antimutagenic, antioxidant, antithrombin, antitumorigenic, antiviral, cytotoxic, hypoglycaemic, and leukopenic. As well, the bioactive components can be extracted from the plant material using environmentally benign solvents that allow for both food and industrial end-uses. The favorable worldwide distribution of sumac also suggests that desirable bioproducts may be obtained at source, with minimal transportation requirements from the source through processing to end consumer. However, previous work has focussed on only a few members of this large plant family. In addition, not all of the species studied to date have been fully characterized for potential bioactive components and bioactivities. Thus, there remains a significant research gap spanning the range from lead chemical discovery through process development and optimization in order to better understand the full potential of the Rhus genus as part of global green technology based bioproduct and bioprocess research programs.
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- This document is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
- How to cite this document:
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Rayne, Sierra and Mazza, Giuseppe. Biological Activities of Extracts from Sumac (Rhus spp.): A Review. Available from Nature Precedings <http://hdl.handle.net/10101/npre.2007.631.1> (2007)
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Published version:
10.1007/s11130-007-0058-4 (Peer Reviewed) Published in Plant Foods for Human Nutrition, Volume 62, Number 4 / December, 2007. -
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Shyam Sunder Chatterjee on 18 August 2007 11:24 UTC
In general, I liked the review. However, it would have been more interesting for phyto-chemicals oriented medicinal chemists and pharmacologists to have some quantitave data on the secondary plant metabolites present in the species, and for which bio-activities have been reported. Without having some idea on the quantity of the plant material neede to obtain say 100mg of an interesting substance, it is always difficult to decide whether one should start to have another look on the plant or not. Do the authours have any idea on such matters, or can they suggest some means by which such data can be obtained on plant secondary metabolites. If we really try to serve “green chemistry” we have to try to solve this problem. The question is: “How?”