Medicinal Plants from Reunion Island
Abstract
The strategy of the Chemistry Laboratory of Natural Substances and Food Sciences, (LCSNSA) has always been to explore the potential of natural products from Reunion Island and the Indian Ocean area. For many years, the separation, purification, structure elucidation and biological evaluation of new molecules extracted from plants have been the favourite target of the laboratory because of their pharmaceutical, nutritional and cosmetic uses. In a context where medicinal plants are still widely used, especially in the French overseas territories, with a cultural, geographical and economical environment rapidly changing, a trans-disciplinary study of this particular biodiversity is fully relevant. In Reunion Island, contrary to many tropical countries, there is a real choice between modern and traditional medicine. More than a medical treatment, traditional medicine is a form of aid and an indispensable complement to western medicine. Many tea-herbalists sell various medicinal plants on the market places and propose several preparations such as decoctions, infusions, etc. Moreover, Reunion Island is one of the biodiversity hotspots of the world and offers a reservoir for the identification of new molecules for a multitude of applications. So, in the field of medicinal plants, the main objective of our lab’s work is to discover, characterise and eventually design selective bioactive compounds from Reunion plant species for the evaluation of the potentialities in species with highest value