Marcela, a promising medicinal and aromatic plant from Latin America: A review

Medicinal plants and their extracts are natural resources of compounds used for treatments in ethnomedicine and phytotherapy. They are also a source of natural products used in the development of new related compounds and drugs for conventional medicine. The increasing interest in use of herbal medicines requires a comprehensive assessment of research data in this field to help focus future efforts. Here we review the increasingly important role of Achyrocline satureioides (Lam.) DC (Asteraceae), marcela, which is used extensively in popular medicine. Like most medicinal plants, however, A. satureioides is generally not cultivated and most plants used commercially are harvested from ecologically and edaphically diverse natural habitats. We provide information on the current status of this promising medicinal and aromatic plant, and an overall view of its potential for production of material with more desirable physicochemical and phytochemical properties.