A Review on Gongronema latifolium, an Extremely Useful Plant with Great Prospects

Abstract

Gongronema latifolium is a plant that has a wide range of nutritional and ethnomedical uses in different tropical African communities. Scientific reports on the chemical composition and bioactivity (anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antidiabetic, antioxidant, anticancer and allelopathic properties) of the plant material by different authors are discussed in this review. Future prospects of the plant extracts in the areas of herbal formulations, food preservation, alcoholic fermentation and beer production, drug discovery and allelopathy are also highlighted.