INTRODUCTION:

Herbal knowledge has been transmitted across generations for millennia. Herbal drugs constitute a significant component of all traditional medicine systems.¹ Herbal medicine represents a rich diversity of popular therapeutic practices. Plants, primarily due to their accessibility, affordability, and historical utility, have been extensively utilized for medicinal purposes since ancient times. In recent years, there has been a remarkable surge in the global use of plant-based health products, both in developing and developed countries, leading to exponential growth in the herbal products market. There is an increasing trend in research focused on herbal remedies².

Herbal medicines, grounded in strong traditional or theoretical foundations, have demonstrated potential as effective and safe treatments for various diseases.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has undertaken efforts to document all medicinal plants used worldwide and has identified more than 20,000 species.³ WHO reports indicate that over 80% of the global population relies on traditional herbal medicine for primary health care.⁴Plants continue to serve as valuable reservoirs of novel drugs and chemicals obtained from various parts of plants.⁵ In recent years, there has been a noticeable trend towards herbal remedies due to the significant and sometimes irreversible side effects linked to modern pharmaceuticals.^6,7However, factors such as overpopulation, urbanization, and ongoing exploitation of herbal resources contribute to the rapid depletion of natural reserves and the associated traditional knowledge.⁸

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Mundulea sericea belongs to the family Fabaceae.It is stout erect shrub with 3 to 4.5 m in height and found in dry forests, rocky hills of West and South India. Mundulea sericea is a tiny, slender flowering tree of light bush forests with corky smooth, greenish yellow bark. Leaves are alternate, with uneven number of leaflets.⁹The bark, leaves, seeds and roots of this plant have been found to be good fish poison, insecticide and as an aphrodisiac Furthermore, Phytochemical like rotenoids, flavones, chalcones and imidazole derivatives have been extractected from the plant some of which have antifungal effect¹⁰

Plant Profile:

Botanical Name: Mundulea sericea

Synonyms: Cytisussericeus, Mundulea suberosa, Tephrosia sericea, Dalbergia sericea

Common Names: Cork Bush, Silver Bush, Rhodesian Silver-leaf

Taxonomical Classification:

Kingdom	: Plantae
Phylum	: Tracheophyta
Class	: Equisetopsida
Order	: Fabales
Family	: Fabaceae
Genus	: Mundulea
Species	: ericea

Whole Plant Flower Leaves and Fruit

Seeds Bark

Fig. No. 1: Mundulea sericea

Geographical Source:

These plants thrive in well-drained, deep sandy or gravelly soils. They are typically found in a variety of habitats including grasslands, savannas, wooded grasslands, and thickets. They often grow on rocky ridges, wooded hillsides, flats, and occasionally near rivers. Their distribution extends across South Africa, western Botswana, Namibia, Angola, tropical Africa, and eastwards to Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka, and Papua New Guinea.¹¹

Morphology:

Mundulea sericea is an attractive, virgate-branched shrub or small, graceful tree that can reach heights of 0.5 to 7.5 (up to 12) meters. It is usually single-stemmed with a bushy, much-branched crown. The bark, which is pale, corky, and deeply furrowed, protects the vascular tissue from frequent veld fires and frost, providing a striking contrast to the delicate, silver-grey to light green foliage. In evergreen habitats devoid of fire, Mundulea sericea plants are typically tall, single-stemmed trees with smooth, greenish-yellow bark featuring almost imperceptible longitudinal fissures. This form is markedly different from the more commonly encountered one, which is where the English common name "cork bush" is derived.

Young branches are tough and pliant. The leaves are alternate and imparipinnate (having an uneven number of leaflets, with a single terminal leaflet), covered with silky silver hairs. They measure 80-100 mm in length and consist of 4-10 pairs of leaflets, with an additional terminal leaflet, each leaflet being approximately 13 mm long and oval to lance-shaped, pale green.¹¹

The flowers are showy and pea-like, appearing in terminal clusters with colors ranging from rich violet and mauve to lilac or even white. They bloom simultaneously with the new leaves in spring and early summer (October to February). The fruit consists of pods that are about 100 mm long and narrow, with thickened yellow-brown rims that become brown-grey as they mature. These velvety, hairy pods may persist on the branches throughout winter. Fruits mature from November to April and each pod contains 1-11 brownish-green, kidney-shaped seeds.¹²

Traditional Uses:

Mundulea sericea can be used as an accent plant in a rock garden, an excellent choice for a container, or as a bonsai. The pounded bark, leaves, seeds, and roots are utilized as fish poison. Rotenoids extracted from the bark are commercially used as insecticides. These chemical compounds, found in the bark, leaves, and seeds, are responsible for the fish-poisoning properties. The potency of these compounds varies geographically. Rotenoids such as rotenone, deguelin, and tephrosin, isolated from Mundulea sericea, have historically been used as arrow poisons and for suicide.

In Kaokoland (northern Namibia), small branches are used as toothbrushes. The pounded leaves mixed with lard,serve as a hair dye. The Zulu people use the leaves as an emetic to treat poisoning in both humans and dogs. Infusions of the root are utilized to address infertility. In Venda, the powdered root is used in rituals to treat a married couple when the wife has experienced multiple miscarriages. During these rituals, the couple is tied together with their backs against the tree.

Phytochemistry:

In Mundulea sericea, the presence of secondary metabolites including alkaloids, terpenoids, proteins, tannins, saponins, phenolic compounds, phytosterols, cardiac glycosides, carbohydrates, amino acids, anthraquinones, steroids, reducing sugars, fatty acids, glycoproteins, and volatile oils has been reported. These compounds play a major role in exhibiting significant bioactivity against various diseased conditions.

Alkaloid:

Lycophyll and Cuscohygrine were identified from the ethanolic extract of the leaves of Mundulea sericea.¹⁴ The following are the structures of these alkaloids:

Cuscohygrine

Lycophyll

Flavonoids:

The methanolic leaf extract shows the presence of lupinifolinol, dehydrolupinifolinol, mutenone, rotenone, and striatine¹⁵. The following are the structures of these flavonoids.

Lupinifolinol

Dehydrolupinifolinol

Mutenone

Rotenone

Striatine.

Steroids:

The petroleum ether leaves extract shows extract shows steroid spinasterol, β-sitosterol, ecdysone, ecdysterone, lupeol,^14,24,25 following are structure of steroids :

Spinasterol

β-sitosterol,

Ecdysone

Lupeol

Terpenoids:

The petroleum ether leaf extract shows terpenoids such as spathulenol, sesquiterpene hydrocarbons, amorphene, and copaene¹⁴. The following are the structures of these terpenoids:

Spathulenol

Sesquiterpene hydrocarbons

Amorphene

Copaene

Phenolic compounds:

Cinnamic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, chlorogenic acid, and salicylic acid are found in the methanolic leaf extract of Mundulea sericea. The following are the structures of these phenolic compounds

Cinnamic acid

Salicyclic acid

Choligenic acid

Para hydroxybenzoic acid

Pharmacological actions:

Antioxidant activity:

S. Gangadevi et al. (2021) studied the phytochemical constituents of various solvent-based leaf extracts of Mundulea sericea for antioxidant and antidiabetic activities. According to their study, the ethyl acetate leaf extract of Mundulea sericea contains effective phytochemical constituents and demonstrates significant antioxidant and antidiabetic activities.¹⁶

Antidiabetic activity:

Mahendra Shivshankar Khyade et al. (2017) demonstrated that Mundulea sericea leaves possess high levels of phenolic and flavonoid contents. They also revealed significant antioxidant activity, suggesting that these leaves could be used as a viable source of natural antioxidants for industrial and pharmaceutical applications.¹⁴

T. Sampath Kumar et al. (2021) conducted a polyherbal phytochemical study that demonstrated the presence of flavonoids, tannins, and phenolic compounds in the formulation. These compounds were estimated using qualitative phytochemical analysis. The polyherbal tablets and extracts were subjected to HPTLC analysis for the estimation of quercetin and rutin. The in vitro antidiabetic activity of the tablets was evaluated using a glucose uptake assay with the 3T3 cell line.¹⁷

Manish Pal Singh et al. (2015) discussed various experimental animal models used in diabetes research, including Streptozocin (STZ)-induced diabetes, Neonatal Streptozotocin-induced diabetes rat models (n-STZ), Nicotinamide-Streptozotocin (NAD-STZ)-induced diabetic models, Sucrose-challenged Streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat models (STZ-S), Low-dose STZ with high-fat diet-fed rat models, and Alloxan-induced diabetes models. They emphasized that diverse experimental animal models are essential for developing new anti-diabetic agents and for thoroughly investigating promising agents before conducting human clinical trials.¹⁸

Sangeeta Sainin et al. (2013) reported on various animal models for evaluating the antidiabetic activity of different agents, including alloxan-induced, streptozotocin-induced, high fructose-induced models, and virus-induced models. They noted that while synthetic drugs used to control diabetes are primarily oral hypoglycemics, they often have serious side effects. In contrast, herbal products present a better alternative with fewer serious side effects, such as hypoglycemia, for managing diabetes mellitus. The review concluded that plants reported to prevent diabetes induced by different models, each with varying pathogenesis, and novel biomarkers may offer promising future prospects due to their long-lasting and safer effects.¹⁹

S. Hemalatha et al. (2012) reviewed that diabetes mellitus is one of the most common metabolic disorders, affecting approximately 2.8% of the world’s population and expected to exceed 5.4% by the year 2025. Herbal medicines have long been highly esteemed sources of treatment and have increasingly become an integral part of modern, high-tech medicine.²⁰.

D. K. Patel, S.K. Prasad et al. (2012) reported a list of anti-diabetic plants used in the treatment of diabetes mellitus. They found that these plants have hypoglycemic effects and can be used to address various secondary complications of diabetes mellitus. Plants have long been a valuable source of medicine for treating various diseases; however, many plants and their active compounds remain poorly characterized²⁰

Antimicrobial activity:

O. Mazimba et al. (2012) studied the composition of the non-polar extracts of the leaves, stem bark, and twigs of Mundulea sericea (Fabaceae) using GC-MS. Eight, five, and eleven components were identified from the leaf, twig, and stem bark extracts, respectively. Sesquiterpenes were the major abundant components in the non-polar extracts. The leaf, stem bark, and twig extracts showed weak antibacterial and antifungal activities.²¹

Anti-inflammatory activity:

S. Gangadevi et al. (2021) reported on the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities of Mundulea sericea. The plant extracts were analyzed for their phytochemical constituents using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) across six different solvent extracts: hexane (MSBH), petroleum ether (MSBPE), chloroform (MSBC), ethyl acetate (MSBEA), ethanol (MSBE), and methanol (MSBM). The results of the phytochemical analysis indicated that the MSBE and MSBM extracts contained more phytochemical constituents than the other extracts. FTIR and GC-MS studies revealed various phytochemical constituents in the MSBE and MSBM extracts, with many bioactive compounds present. Further, the MSBE extract was subjected to antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity assays. For antioxidant activity, four different assays were used: 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonate) (ABTS), hydrogen peroxide, and nitric oxide (NO). Among these assays, the NO assay reported a 74.63% inhibition of free radicals, which was higher than the other assays. For anti-inflammatory activity, the albumin denaturation and human red blood cell membrane stabilization assays were performed with the MSBE extract. The results showed that the MSBE extract exhibited significant anti-inflammatory activity, with more than 60% inhibition capacity in both assays. This study concludes that Mundulea sericea bark extracts contain highly therapeutic phytocompounds with notable antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.²²

Antiplasmodial and antileishmanial activity:

Carolyne Chepkirui et al. (2020) isolated five flavonoid compounds from the leaf extract of Mundulea sericea. These compounds were tested for antileishmanial activity. Dehydrolupinifolinol (2) and sericetin (5) were active against drug-sensitive Leishmania donovani (MHOM/IN/83/AG83), with IC50 values of 9.0 and 5.0 μM, respectively. In a cytotoxicity assay, lupinifolin (3) exhibited significant activity against BEAS-2B (IC50 4.9μM) and HepG2 (IC50 10.8μM) human cell lines. All other compounds showed low cytotoxicity (IC50>30 μM) against human lung adenocarcinoma cells (A549), human liver cancer cells (HepG2), lung/bronchus epithelial cells (BEAS-2B), and immortal human hepatocytes (LO2)¹⁵

CONCLUSION:

Herbal medicine has held a significant place in human life from ancient times to the present, providing a wealth of information on the use of plants and plant-derived products for medicinal purposes. The utilization of medicinal plants in managing various illnesses is attributed to their phytochemical constituents, a practice that dates back to antiquity. Literature indicates that Mundulea sericea is a plant of considerable importance due to its diverse medicinal properties and the presence of bioactive compounds such as ecdysterone, choligenic acid, lupeol, rotenone, cuscohygrine, striatine, and β-sitosterol. Mundulea sericea exhibits a range of pharmacological activities including antidiabetic, antioxidant, antimicrobial, larvicidal, anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, and antispasmodic effects. Additionally, traditional uses of the plant have been documented, including its roles as an antiperiodic, purgative, and laxative, as well as in the treatment of various gastric disorders and body pain. These traditional applications are still under study, and further research is warranted. Therefore, Mundulea sericea shows promise as a multipurpose medicinal agent, and further clinical trials are needed to validate its efficacy.

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Received on 05.11.2024 Revised on 21.03.2025

Accepted on 26.05.2025 Published on 08.11.2025

Available online from November 13, 2025

Research J. Pharmacy and Technology. 2025;18(11):5589-5594.

DOI: 10.52711/0974-360X.2025.00806

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