title: Medicinal uses, phytochemistry and pharmacology of the genus Dictamnus (Rutaceae).
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Seven species from the genus Dictamnus are distributed throughout Europe and North Asia and only two species grow in China. One is Dictamnus dasycarpus Turcz., which could be found in many areas of China and has been recorded in Chinese Pharmacopoeia. The other is Dictamnus angustifolius G. Don ex Sweet, which is only present in Xinjiang province and has been used as an alternative for Dictamnus dasycarpus in the local for the treatment of rheumatism, bleeding, itching, jaundice, chronic hepatitis and skin diseases. The present paper reviewed the traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology and toxicology of the genus Dictamnus.
  
  
  METHODS
  Information on the Dictamnus species was collected from classic books about Chinese herbal medicine and globally accepted scientific databases including PubMed, Elsevier, ASC, Scopus, Google Scholar, Web of Science, CNKI and others.
  
  
  RESULTS
  About 170 chemical compounds, which include quinoline alkaloids, limonoids, sesquiterpenes, coumarins, flavonoids and steroids, have been isolated from the genus Dictamnus. The characteristic and active constituents of Dictamnus species are considered to be quinoline alkaloids and limonoids, which exhibited a broad spectrum of biological activities such as anti-cancer, anti-inflammation, anti-microbe, anti-platelet-aggregation, vascular-relaxation, anti-insect, anti-HIV, anti-allergy and neuroprotection. Moreover, quinoline alkaloids and limonoids could be used as quality control markers to distinguish different species from the genus Dictamnus. However, there were also some reports on the toxic hepatitis and phototoxic effect of Dictamnus species, and the related research needs to be further studied.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this review, we summarized the chemical constituents, pharmacology, quality control and toxicology of the species from genus Dictamnus. Phytochemical investigations indicated that quinoline alkaloids and limonoids were the major bioactive components with potential cytotoxic, neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anti-platelet-aggregation and vascular relaxing activities. These two kinds of compounds have attracted great interests in the past few years and may have great potential to be new drug lead compounds.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Drug Quality Control and Pharmacovigilance (Ministry of Education), China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China; State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicine, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Mengying
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.affiliation: Center of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Drug Quality Control and Pharmacovigilance (Ministry of Education), China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China; State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicine, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: Department of Natural Medicinal Chemistry, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Jingyu
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Drug Quality Control and Pharmacovigilance (Ministry of Education), China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China; State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicine, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Yiqiao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Drug Quality Control and Pharmacovigilance (Ministry of Education), China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China; State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicine, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China.
authors.forename: Fengguo
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Drug Quality Control and Pharmacovigilance (Ministry of Education), China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China; State Key Laboratory of Natural Medicine, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China. Electronic address: zunjianzhangcpu@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Zunjian
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Natural Medicinal Chemistry, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing 210009, China. Electronic address: sjbcpu@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Jianbo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D036905:Dictamnus; D020834:Ethnopharmacology; D006801:Humans; D064209:Phytochemicals / Q000032:analysis / Q000627:therapeutic use / Q000633:toxicity; D008517:Phytotherapy; D028321:Plant Preparations / Q000627:therapeutic use* / Q000633:toxicity
chemical_list: D064209:Phytochemicals; D028321:Plant Preparations
keywords: Dictamnus; Pharmacology; Phytochemistry; Toxicology