Common mullein, pharmacological and chemical aspects

Riaz, Muhammad; Zia-Ul-Haq, Muhammad; Jaafar, Hawa Z.E.

doi:10.1590/S0102-695X2013000600012

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Review Articles • Rev. bras. farmacogn. 23 (6) • Nov-Dec 2013 • https://doi.org/10.1590/S0102-695X2013000600012 copy

Common mullein, pharmacological and chemical aspects

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Verbascum thapsus L. [Khardhag or Common mullein], a member of the family Scrophulariaceae, is a famous herb that is found all over Europe, in temperate Asia, in North America and is well-reputed due to its medicinal properties. This medicinal herb contains various chemical constituents like saponins, iridoid and phenylethanoid glycosides, flavonoids, vitamin C and minerals. It is famous in various communities worldwide for the treatment of various disorders of both humans and animals aliments. A number of pharmacological activities such as anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer, antimicrobial, antiviral, antihepatotoxic and anti-hyperlipidemic activity have been ascribed to this plant. The plant is used to treat tuberculosis also, earache and bronchitis. In the present paper botanical and ethnomedicinal description, pharmacological profile and phytochemistry of this herb is being discussed.

Verbascum thapsus; Phytochemistry; Pharmacology; Ethnomedicinal; Scrophulariaceae

Part used	Medicinal uses	Location	Reference
Whole plant	Remedy in the treatment of tuberculosis	Ireland	Allen and Hatfield, 2004
Leaves, flower	Skin diseases, cuts, wounds and swelling	Malakand, Pakistan	Sher, 2011
Whole plant	Ear problems of cats and dogs	Canada	Lans et al., 2008
Flower and leaves	Inflammatory ailments in respiratory tract and others	Mexico	Rodriguez-Fragoso et al., 2008
Aerial part	Wound healing, urinary disease, edema	Nepal	Rajbhandari et al., 2009
Flower	Respiratory tonic for ruminants	British Columbia	Lans et al., 2007
Leaves	Antitussive	Albania and Italy	Pieroni and Quave, 2005
Infusion from root	In combination for dental treatment	Medieval England	Anderson, 2004
Flower and leaves	Pulmonary disease, fever and bleeding of lungs and bowel	Pakistan	Shinwari and Gilani, 2003
Ointment, decoction in olive oil	Antitussive	Bulgaria	Leporatti and Ivancheva, 2003
Flower	Emollient against catarrh and coughs cataplasm applied externally to soothe gangrenous sores	Italy	Leporatti and Ivancheva, 2003
Flower	Topical inflammatory processes in humans and animals	Abruzzo (Italy)	Turker and Gurel, 2005
Olive oil extract of the leaves	Rectal prolapsed locally in veterinary medicine	Italy's Tuscany region	Manganelli et al., 2001
	Skin diseases, wound healing and gastrointestinal system ailments in sheep, mules, cattle and horses	Italy	Viegi et al., 2003
Roots	With Allium sativum for GI system in calves	Italy	Viegi et al., 2003
Roots	Treatment of the symptoms of diabetes and its complications	North American boreal forest, Canada	McCune and Johns, 2002
Flower and leaves	Diuretic, expectorant and sedative	Turkey	Dulger et al., 2002
Leaves Leaves in powdered form	Diarrhea and dysentery in cattle used for healing wounds and the seeds used as a fish poison	Islamabad, Pakistan	Shinwari and Khan, 2000
Oil from flower	For treatment of piles, bruises and frostbites	Germany	Grieve, 1981
Whole plant	Active against snake bite venom	Uttar Pradesh, India	Jain and Puri, 1984
Leaves	Ointments for burns and earache	Eastern United States	Haughton, 1978
Tea	For lung disease	ancient Rome and now in modern Ireland	DeBray, 1978
Dried flower or root	As cigarettes for asthmatics	Indians and Menominee (Michigan)	Lewis and Elvin-Lewis, 1977
Seeds	Used as a fish poison	Europe and Asia	Wilhelm, 1974

Part used		Anti-oxidant activity (μg/ml)
leaf		> 100
stem		33.16
root		35.21

Ehanol extracts	*B. subtilis*	S. aureus	*E. coli*	*P. aeruginosa*
V. thapsus leaf	32	32	32	> 250
V. thapsus stem	8	16	32	> 250
V. thapsus root	32	128	> 250	32

Carotenoid		Contents
β-carotene		1121.00 (μg/kg)
lutein		62.10 (μg/kg)
zeaxanthin		6.40 (mg/kg)
cryptoxanthin		1.30 (mg/kg)
Total carotenoids		15.80 (μmol/kg)

Saponins	Plant parts	Reference
triterpene A (16)	Aerial parts	Pascual Teresa et al., 1978a,b
triterpene B (17)
saikogenin A (18)
veratric acid (19)	Benzene extract	Pascual Teresa et al., 1978a,b
β-spinasterol	Aerial parts	Bianco et al., 1980
6-O-β-D-xylopyranosyl
aucubin
thapsuine B	Aerial parts	Pascual Teresa et al., 1980
hydroxythapsuine	Aerial parts	Pascual Teresa et al., 1980
thapsuine A	Aerial parts	Zhao et al., 2011
hydroxythapsuine A
3-O-fucopyranosylsaikogenin F

Carbohydrates	Plant parts	Reference
Verbascose (20)	Roots	Murakami, 1940
stachyose
heptaose	Roots	Hattori and Hatanaka, 1958
octaose
nonaose
sugars	Trichomic cells	Miroslavov and Komarov, 1959
Sucrose (21)	Ethanol extract	Pascual Teresa et al., 1978b
Pectins	Roots	Verdon, 1912

Elements and radicals	Plant part	Reference
Basic elements	Ash of fruit	Pande and Tewari, 1960
Al
Na
K
Mg
Acidic radicals
carbonate
sulfate
chloride
silicate
Cr and Ni	Whole plant	Kfayatullah et al., 2001
Zn and Pb	Whole plant	Shah et al., 2004

Fatty acid		V. thapsus (g/100 g oil)
14:0		TR
16:0		6.0
16:1		0.1
18:0		2.7
18:1		16.1
18:2		73.1
18:3		1.0
20:0		0.7
20:1		0.2
SAT		9.4
MUFA		16.4
PUFA		74.2

Tocopherols		V. thapsus (mg/kg)
α-tocopherol		27.1
γ-tocopherol		213.3
δ-tocopherol		76.2
Total tocopherols		759.4 (μmol/kg)

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[1] Corresponding author. E-mail: pharmariaz@uoswabi.edu.pk (M. Riaz); hawazej@agri.upm.edu.my (H.Z.E. Jaafar).