Abstract |
: |
Solanumnigrum is commonly called black night shade that belongs to Solanaceae (potato) family. It is a fairly common herb or short-lived perennial shrub, found in many wooded areas, as well as disturbed habitats. Various experimental based scientific studies were conducted in order to investigate the efficacy and safety of S. nigrum extract. The scientific investigation from many research findings shows that this plant has various bioactive ingredients such as alkaloids, solanins, saponins, flavonoids, tannins, steroidal glycoalkaloids, steroidal genin and vitamins. These constituents are responsible for diverse activities including: anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-diabetic, anti-fungal, anti-oxidant, hepatoprotective, nephroprotective and cytoprotective effects. In addition, these bioactive constituents in the S. nigrum have free radical scavenging capacity and anti-lipid peroxidation activities by stabilization of plasma membranes as well as repair of liver and kidney tissue damage. Moreover, the result of this review showed that S. nigrum whole plant extract and SNFEt have the capacity to reverse kidney damages to near normal levels if pathological change occurs. The S. nigrum whole plant extract and SNFEt were found to be safe for kidney parameters up to 5ml/kg doses. But this extract would have been toxic above 5ml/kg which is considered to be elevated dose. So that safe dosage needs to be identified for children and pregnant women because the children have less body resistance and the pregnant women may susceptible to abort since it may induce uterine contraction. Therefore, further studies required to isolate the active ingredients from the extract of S. nigrum for proper drug development to treat the above mentioned health problems by conducting further clinical trials. |