Abstract

Medicinal plant plays a vital role in the management of various diseases. Kigelia africana popularly known as the Sausage tree, Kigelia pinnata is a multipurpose medicinal plant with many attributes and considerable potentials. The plant has traditional uses which include anticancer, antiulcer, anti-aging, antioxidant, and anti malarial. It is also widely applied in the treatment of genital infections, gynaecological disorders, renal ailments, fainting, epilepsy, sickle-cell anaemia, psoriasis, eczema, central nervous system depression, respiratory ailment, skin complaint, body weakness, leprosy, impetigo, worm infestation, scalp, athlete’s foot, tumours etc., especially in developing nations where orthodox medicine are meager, expensive or inaccessible. The various chemical constituents such as the naphthaquinones, iridoids, fatty acids, norviburtinal, sterols, lignans, terpenoid, and flavonoids are the essential building block responsible for its wide range of activities. This work represents the recent profile of applications of K. africana as examined by various modern scientific researches. This work was prompted as a result of lack of recent and sufficient scientific information on the use of K. africanaas a viable medicinal plant.

Key words: Bignoniaceae, Kigelia africana, nahthaquinones, anticancer, anti-inflammatory.