Essential Oils Bearing Plants of Cameroon – An Update
Vougmo Fogang
Department of Phytotherapy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Near East University, ZIP: 99138 Nicosia / TRNC Mersin 10, Turkey and Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé 1, Cameroon.
Filiz Meriçli *
Department of Phytotherapy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Near East University, ZIP: 99138 Nicosia / TRNC Mersin 10, Turkey.
Dudu ÖzkumYavuz *
Department of Pharmaceutical Botany, Faculty of Pharmacy, Near East University, ZIP: 99138 Nicosia / TRNC Mersin 10, Turkey.
Talla Clovis
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé 1, Cameroon.
Kenfack Fogang
Institut of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD), P.O Box 2123, Yaoundé, Cameroon and Laboratory of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of Yaoundé 1, P.O. Box 812, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
Tagne Mamno
Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Near East University, ZIP: 99138 Nicosia / TRNC Mersin 10, Turkey.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
In Cameroon, several plants are used both for their medicinal properties and as food. Many of them contain essential oils as one of their secondary metabolites. Although traditional healers rarely, if ever, use essential oils as the basis for their treatments, it is thought that the latter would be found in their products in view of the preparation processes used. And therefore several activities attributed to their drugs are linked to the presence of essential oils. Many studies have revealed the presence of essential oils in several plants found in Cameroon, and validated their traditional use. The purpose of this study is to identify these plants on the basis of studies carried out in order to make a review which will serve as support for future studies. This work reviewed available and accessible original articles in EBSCO, Ovid MEDLINE®, PubMed®, ScienceDirectTM, Scopus® and Web of ScienceTM databases on Cameroon plants studied for their essential oils. We have identified ninety plants that have been the subject of proven studies and scientific publication. They are mainly distributed in the families of Lamiaceae (14: 16%), Annonaceae (11: 12%), Rutaceae (10: 11%), Asteraceae (10 : 11%) and Myrtaceae (09 : 10%). We believe that an important work remains to be done in the search for new essential oils in Cameroon, because the country is endowed with a very great botanical diversity.
Keywords: Essential oils, medicinal plants, ethnobotany, traditional medicine, Cameroon