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Abstract
ABSTRACT:Costus igneus Nak and Costus ictus D. Don, commonly known as spiral flag is amember of costaceae and a newly introduced plant in india from south and centralAmerica it is a perennial, upright, spreading plant reaching about two feet tall, withspirally arranged leaves and attractive flowers. In southern india, it usually grows as anornamental plant and its leaves are used as a dietary supplement in the treatment ofdiabetes mellitus. Recently, a number of research have been carried out the evaluate theanti-diabetic potential of this plant. Besides, it has been proven to possess variouspharmacological activities like hypolipidemic, diurect, antioxidant, anti- microbial, anti- cancerous. Further, various phytochemical investigations reveal the presence ofcarbohydrates, triterpenoids, proteins, alkaloids, tannins, saponins, flavonoids, steroid, and explore the different pharmacological and phytochemical studies reported till date. The plant belongs to the family Costaceae. The Costaceae was first raised to the rank offamily by Nakai on the basis of spirally arranged leaves and rhizomes being free fromaromatic essential oils. Before the elevation to family status, Engler and Prantlrecognized Costoideal as a subfamily under Zingiberaceae. Several anatomical andmorphological features support this isolated position including well developed aerialshoot with distinct, rigid, and commonly branched stems. The leaves are inserted in a lowspiral with divergences. The family Costaceae consists of four genera and approximately200 species. The genus Costus is the largest in the family with about 150 species that aremainly tropical in distribution.2,6 The present review deals with the recent researchcarried out in the area of phytochemistry, pharmacological, biological activities, andsafety of Costus igneus Nak.
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Copyright © 2024 Thorat Pooja Suresh. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
