TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title page    –         –         –         –         –         –         –         –         –         i

Certification          –         –         –         –         –         –         –         –         ii

Dedication   –         –         –         –         –         –         –         –         –         iii

Acknowledgements         –         –         –         –         –         –         –         iv-v

Table of Contents  –         –         –         –         –         –         –         –         vi-vii

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1     Traditional Medicine       –         –         –         –         –         –         1-4

CHAPTER TWO: CLASSIFICATION OF Solanum incanum, L

2.1     Taxonomic Classification of Solanum incanum L.   –         –         5

2.2     Description of the Plant   –         –         –         –         –         –         2

2.3     General Uses –       –         –         –         –         –         –         –         6

2.3.1  Anti-Microbial and Antifungal Effects          –         –         –         6

2.3.2  Antipyretic Effects          –         –         –         –         –         –         7

2.3.3  Antinociceptive Effects   –         –         –         –         –         –         8

2.3.4  Hypoglycemic and An-orexic Effects –         –         –         –         9

2.3.5  Insect Repellant Properties        –         –         –         –         –         9

2.3.6  Spasmolytic Effects         –         –         –         –         –         10

2.3.7  Anticancer Effects –         –         –         –         –         10-14

2.3.8  Toxicity       –         –         –         –         –         –         –         15

CHAPTER THREE: MEDICINAL AND NUTRITIONAL BENEFITS OF Solanum incanum

3.1     Ethnomedicinal Uses of (Solanum incanum) –         –         16-17

3.2     Nutritional and Chemical Values         –         –         –         17-19

CHAPTER FOUR: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 

4.1     Summary     –         –         –         –         –         –         –         20

4.2     Conclusion –         –         –         –         –         –         –         21

References

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Traditional Medicine

Traditional Medicine (TM) is the sum total of all the knowledge beliefs and practices that are used in prevention, diagnosis and elimination of physical, mental and social imbalance that exclusively rely on practical experiences and observation World Health Organization, “Traditional Medicines Strategy 2002 – 2005”, WHO 2002, Geneva. The most common traditional medicine is the use of medicinal plants. Medicinal plant in the context of Traditional Medicine can be used for therapeutic purpose or which is a precursor for synthesis of useful drugs Sofowora (1982). Syed and Rajeev also defined medicinal plant as any plant in which one or more of its organs containing substances that can be used for therapeutic properties. There is a proportional increase in demand for herbal products both locally and Internationally Giday et al., (2009). The demand is caused by population increase, poverty, increasing awareness of herbal products, high cost of modern medicine and limited access to trained doctors. Medicinal plants are cheaper and more accessible to most of the population in the world. Thus, there is need to encourage the use of medicinal plants as potential sources of new drugs Daniyah and Muhammad (2010). According to the World Health Organization greater than 80% of the total world’s population depends on the Traditional Medicine in order to satisfy their primary health care needs World Health Organization (2001). The organization estimates about 35,000 – 70, 000 species of plants are used for medicinal purposes around the world, of which some 5000 have been submitted to biomedical study (Cowan, 1999). World Health Organization also observed that the majority of the populations in the developing countries are still relying on herbal medicine to meet their health need. World Health Organization (1999). Antibiotics have always played a major role in the treatment of many diseases. However, due to the acquired resistance of pathogens against certain antibiotic, drug resistance to human pathogen bacteria has increased all over the world (Amador et al., 2009). This has created immense clinical problem in the treatment of the infectious disease. Therefore, limited numbers of drugs are available for their treatment and emerging resistance which permanently encourage the search for alternatives with low cost and low toxicity (Bouamama et al., 2006). Many efforts have been made to discover new antimicrobial compounds from various species of medicinal plants and the results derived from these scientific studies have aided in the validation of traditional uses of these plants (Edewor and Usman, 2012). Screening of such compounds from plants may result in the discovery of novel effective compounds against pathogenic microorganisms that can either inhibit the growth of pathogens or kill them and have no or least toxicity to host cells (Maher, 2011). These effects of the plants result from the combinations of secondary products present in them. In plants, these compounds are mostly secondary metabolites such as alkaloids, steroids, tannins, and phenol compounds, which are synthesized and deposited in specific parts or in all parts of the plant (Bishnu et al., 2009). Large number of medicinal plants has been evaluated for their biological activity in order to nationalize their use in Traditional Medicine (Djipa et al., 2009). Among those, Solanum Incanum L. is the known medicinal plant used traditionally for the treatment of different infections (Mirutse et al., 2000). The plants are used in tropical Africa, including Ethiopia, as traditional health care for treatment of diseases such as score throat, stomach-ache, malaria common cold, hypertension, diabetics, headache, painful menstruation, liver pain and pain caused by onchocerciasis, pneumonia and rheumatism (Mirutse and Tilahun, 2007). Since from the beginning of this century, there has been an increasing interest in the study of medicinal plants and their traditional use in different parts of the world. Organizing together those studies is very important to provide the ethno medicinal and pharmacological information’s on those plants. Therefore this paper reviewed and provided the ethnomedicinal uses, phytochemistry and pharmacological properties of Solanum incanum L. As much as possible up to date information on the plant has been searched and provided whenever it was available in English.