Biological activities associated with tannins and flavonoids present in Hymenaea stigonocarpa and Hymenaea courbaril: A systematic review

Abstract

The genus Hymenaea belongs to the Fabaceae family and has species distributed from Central America to South America in the Amazon. The wood of these species are widely used in civil construction, as well as the leaves, roots, sap and bark to treat inflammatory and respiratory diseases, infections, tumors and pain. This systematic review aimed to identify the biological activities associated with tannins and flavonoids in Hymenaea courbaril and Hymenaea stigonocarpa. Thus, research articles published between 2009 and 2019 that directly address this topic were searched using the following descriptors: Hymenaea AND flavonoids AND tannins AND biological activities AND medicinal plant, in PubMed Central, Web of Science, Scopus and Science Direct databases. The results obtained suggest that tannins and flavonoids are among the main compounds involved with potential antifungal and termiticidal effects, in addition to antioxidant, antibacterial, antidiarrheal, antiulcer, anti-inflammatory, myorelaxant, antiviral and larvicidal action for Aedes aegypti. The phytochemical diversity of these plants and the various biological activities help to expand scientific knowledge about these species, contributing to the eventual production of new products and/or new technologies.