title: The Chemistry and Biological Activities of Natural Products from Northern African Plant Families: From Taccaceae to Zygophyllaceae.
abstract: Traditional medicinal practices have a profound influence on the daily lives of people living in developing countries, particularly in Africa, since the populations cannot generally afford the cost of Western medicines. We have undertaken to investigate the correlation between the uses of plants in Traditional African medicine and the biological activities of the derived natural products, with the aim to validate the use of traditional medicine in Northern African communities. The literature is covered for the period 1959-2015 and part III of this review series focuses on plant families with names beginning with letters T to Z. The authors have focused on curating data from journals in natural products and phytomedicine. Within each journal home page, a query search based on country name was conducted. All articles "hits" were then verified, one at a time, that the species was harvested within the Northern African geographical regions. The current data partly constitutes the bases for the development of the Northern African natural compounds database. The review discusses 284 plant-based natural compounds from 34 species and 11 families. It was observed that the ethnobotanical uses of less than 40 % of the plant species surveyed correlated with the bioactivities of compounds identified.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Martin-Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Wolfgang-Langenbeck-Str. 4, 06120, Halle (Saale), Germany. ntiekfidele@gmail.com.|Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Buea, P.O. Box 63, Buea, Cameroon. ntiekfidele@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Fidele
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ntie-Kang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Chemical and Bioactivity Information Centre, University of Buea, P.O. Box 63, Buea, Cameroon.
authors.forename: Leonel E
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Njume
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Buea, P.O. Box 63, Buea, Cameroon.
authors.forename: Yvette I
authors.initials: YI
authors.lastname: Malange
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Research Group Pharmaceutical Bioinformatics, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Hermann-Herder-Strasse 9, 79104, Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Günther
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Martin-Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Wolfgang-Langenbeck-Str. 4, 06120, Halle (Saale), Germany.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Sippl
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Buea, P.O. Box 63, Buea, Cameroon.
authors.forename: Joseph N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Yong
keywords: African flora; Biological activities; Ethnobotany; Natural products; Traditional medicine