Chemistry and pharmacology of Vismia macrophylla and Solanum americanum: Amazonian species used for cutaneous diseases

Jara-Herrera C.; de Albuquerque R.D.D.G.; León-Vargas F.R.; Ramos-Rivas Y.V.S.; Souza-Nájar R.I.; Del Águila C.P.C. · Natural Resources for Human Health (2025) · DOI: 10.53365/nrfhh/206023

Resumen

Vismia macrophylla Kunth (Hypericaceae) and Solanum americanum Mill. are two species of Amazonian origin used ethnomedicinally for the treatment of skin diseases, among other uses. However, despite advances in chemical and pharmacological studies on these species, there is a lack of optimized information on these topics. So, a timely bibliographic review is necessary to disseminate the state of the art in the scientific field. In this sense, documents on chemical and pharmacological information related to skin function were searched in the Scopus, Science Direct, and Google Scholar databases, using the scientific names of each species associated with the terms “chemistry” or “activity.” As a result, 24 documents on the subject were used, excluding those present in the introduction. To date, it has been demonstrated in the literature that both species have extensive antimicrobial activity and relevant antioxidant activity, so that S. americanum also presented anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and healing activity in vivo. In addition, V. macrophylla also acts against several tumor cell lines, which may lead to studies for evaluation in melanoma cells or other skin carcinomas. Other considerations for future studies include the development of suitable topical formulations and clinical trials to evaluate quality, efficacy, and safety in humans.

Instituciones: Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía Peruana