Health benefits of Ipecac and Cephaeline: their potential in health promotion and disease prevention

: Cephaelis ipecacuanha and Cephaelis acuminate commonly called Ipecac are the important medicinal plants of Cephaelis species belongs to Rubiaceae family. Ipecac is cultivated throughout the world due to their vast of therapeutic applications in gastrointestinal disorders and poisoning cases. Claimed pharmacological activities of Ipecac such as diaphoretic, expectorant and anti-amoebic are mainly due to the presence of alkaloidal class chemical emetine and cephaeline. Further ethanol extract of Ipecac have been used as emetic agents. Phytochemical analysis of the Ipecac revealed the presence of emetine, cephaeline, protoemetine, psychotrine, emetamine, O-methylpsychotrine and psychotrine methyl ether. Cephaeline is colourless crystalline active compound of Ipecac plant which is having chemical formula C28H38O4N2. Pharmacologically cephaeline induces vomiting through acting on stomach lining but it is more toxic and irritant compared to the emetine. In the present review paper medicinal importance of Ipecac and their main active phytoconstituents cephaeline have been discussed and presented in concise manner to explore their hidden potential. Phytochemical aspects of Ipecac and overview of cephaeline have been discussed in the present paper. However important Pharmacological activities of cephaeline on gastrointestinal tract, cardiovascular system, Zika virus, Ebola virus, leishmania and malaria have been mainly focused in the present paper. Further important analytical techniques of detection and separation of cephaeline have been also presented in the present paper. Present paper also contains information of Tissue culture techniques of Ipecac for the better production of cephaeline to fulfil the industrial demands. The presented information will be beneficial to the scientific communities to know the importance of Ipecac and their main active phytoconstituents cephaeline for the treatment of numerous health related complication.

Reproductive studies on ipecac (Cephaelis ipecacuanha (Brot.) A. Rich; Rubiaceae): meiotic behavior and pollen viability

Reproductive studies were carried out on Brazilian accessions of ipecac, Cephaelis ipecacuanha. Meiotic behavior was studied using the squashing technique. Irregular chromosome segregation in meiosis I and II, many sets of chromosomes in telophase II, micronuclei, incorrect cytoplasm division, incomplete cytokinesis and anomalous post-meiotic products, mainly polyads, were observed. The mean meiotic index was lower than 72%. Pollen viability was analyzed using Alexander solution, and the percentages ranged between brevistylous and longistylous floral morphs (85.3 to 93.1%), and among different localities (82.5 to 92.6%) analyzed. The size of pollen ranged between viable and sterile, and empty and shrunken sterile. In its natural habitat, this species is known to propagate by vegetative multiplication, but sexual reproduction seems to be as important as the vegetative propagation to this species.