Insights of phytoconstituents and pharmacology activities of Salacca plants

Abstract

In the last 20 years, plant-based therapy had become the world's attention. Our country Indonesia is popular in its megabiodiversity, among which is Salacca zalacca Gaert. (Voss.), or salak. The fruit of this plant is generally utilized as pickles, chips, etc. However, its benefits for health remain unexplored. Library searches using PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and Google resulted that S. zalacca, which contains flavonoids, alkaloids, terpenoids, and sitosterols exerts various pharmacology activities, e.g., antioxidant, cholesterol reducer, antidiabetic, skin whitening, antihyperuricemia, antibacterial, immune system enhancer, cancer cell growth inhibitor, and adsorbent.