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Phytochemistry of the Cycadales
Journal Article
đź“–
Osborne R, Stevenson DW, Ferreira D. 2025. Phytochemistry of the Cycadales. The Botanical Review
: .
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12229-025-09313-y.
Abstract
With 375 known species in 10 genera, cycads, or members of the order Cycadales, represent an important group of plants of early ancestry with many unusual and several unique features. Past reviews of the phytochemistry of cycads sometimes focus strongly or exclusively on the genus Cycas and are often biased towards pharmaceutical aspects sometimes to the exclusion of other details. In other works, we have cause to doubt some of the provenance or correct names of species mentioned. Furthermore, there are many instances where the chemical names cited are incomplete or even incorrect. Our review sets out to correct such defects and serves as a comprehensive record of some 300 chemical compounds that have been isolated from vegetative and reproductive plant material across the entire spectrum of cycad taxa. In this account, we review firstly the ethnobotanical, chemical and clinical research relating to the methylazoxymethanol (MAM) glycosides and the compound, β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), all commonly implicated in human and animal cycad toxicity. That is followed by our treatment of the generally non-toxic compounds found in different parts of various cycads, with notes on their evolutionary, taxonomic, physiological and medical significance. Cycad biflavonoids and triterpenoids feature most prominently in our listings, but we report also on other phenolic compounds, carbohydrates, steroidal compounds, carotenoids, fatty acids, leaf waxes and cone volatiles. The latter chemicals are often intimately associated with the behaviour of cycad pollinating insects. The numerous compounds from Cycas revoluta testify to the pharmacological importance of this cycad in many Asian cultures and the resulting large number of publications dealing with analyses of C. revoluta material; this contrasts with the limited amount of phytochemical research that has been carried out on particularly on other cycad genera that occur only in non-Asian countries.
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