Resumen

DE FRANCA BONILHA, Iuri et al. Biological potential of plants from the genus Bauhinia. Rev Cubana Farm [online]. 2015, vol.49, n.3. ISSN 0034-7515.

The genus Bauhinia (Fabaceae, Leguminosae) consists of approximately 300 species, which are commonly known as ‘cow’s paw’ or ‘cow’s hoof’, because of the shape of their leaves. They are widely distributed in most tropical countries, including Africa, Asia and South America. Their leaves and stem-bark have been used frequently in folk medicine as a remedy for different kinds of disease, particularly diabetes, infections, pain and inflammatory processes. Bauhinia longifolia flavonoids demonstrated the highest antiviral activity of all tested substances, being that quercetin had the highest antiviral activity amongst purified flavonoids. The aim of this article is to summarize concisely recent advances published in the last 5 years on the most recent works about the biological activities and phytochemical composition of plants of the genusBauhinia. For this, was performed a search in some of the databases on the web as PubMed, Google Scholar and Medline, using the keywords Bauhinia, biological properties, diabetes, cancer.

Palabras clave : Bauhinia; biological properties; diabetes; cancer.

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