REVIEW ARTICLE Typha capensis (Rohrb.) N.E.Br. (Typhaceae): morphology, medicinal uses, biological and chemical properties Collen Musara & Elizabeth Bosede Aladejana * Medicinal Plants and Economic Development (MPED) Research Centre, Department of Botany, University of Fort Hare, Private Bag X1314, Alice 5700, South Africa *Email: ealadejana@ufh.ac.za ARTIC LE HISTORY Received: 23 July 2020 Accepted: 16 September 2020 Published: 01 October 2020 KEYWORDS Bulrush Cat's tail Biological actvites Ailments Herbal medicine Southern Africa ABSTRACT Typha capensis (Rohrb.) N.E.Br. is a robust, monoecious, perennial marshy herb that belongs to the family Typhaceae. The current research aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of the biological and chemical propertes, botany and medicinal uses of T. capensis. Comparatve analysis of literature showed that T. capensis is a medicinal plant that has multple benefts such as food for humans, feeds for animals and medicines to treat various diseases. All the parts including the leaves, seeds, rhizomes and pollen can be used in making decocton to improve male potency and libido, cures genital problems, boosts circulaton, enhance female fertlity, strengthens uterine contracton in childbirth and facilitates placenta removal. It is also used for the treatment of dysmenorrhea, diarrhoea and dysentery venereal diseases. The plant contains several favones and phenolic compounds which have been reported to possess ant-infammatory actvity. Scientfc studies have shown that T. capensis has a broad range of biological actvites such as antbacterial, antoxidants, fertlity-promotng efect and apoptosis efect. T. capensis should be subjected to comprehensive phytochemical, pharmacological and toxicological assessments projected at assessing its efcacy and safety as herbal medicine. Introducton The family Typhaceae is composed of approximately 10 to 15 species which are tall and capable of reproducing clonally through submerged rhizomes forming dense stands (1). Typha capensis (Rohrb.) N.E.Br. is a vigorous, herbaceous perennial plant known as bulrush (English), Lesehu (Sepedi / North- Sotho), papkuil or matjiesriet or palmiet (Afrikaans.), Ibhuma (Zulu, Swazi), Ingcongolo (Xhosa) and Motsitla (Sesotho) which belongs to the family Typhaceae (2, 3). The word Typha is derived from typhos, a Greek word which means marsh, referring to the habitat, or typhe, which is a cat's tail, alluding to their inflorescence (1). Its specific name capensis is derived from its abundance in the Cape (1). A study on the morphology, medicinal uses, phytochemistry and biological activities of T. capensis was carried out using material from existing scientific databases such as Google Scholar, Science Web, SciFinder, Scopus, Science Direct, PubMed, Scielo, Springer Link, Google Patents, BioMed Central (BMC) and Medline. To avoid too much filtering of literature, the search terms were done individually. Keywords of the quest include the scientific name and synonyms, common English names, biological activity, medicinal uses, ethnobotany, ethnopharmacology, pharmacology, phytochemistry of T. capensis and therapeutic value. Complementary information was gathered from related scientific publications collected from the University of Fort Hare Library, Alice campus in South Africa. The economic value and intrinsic benefits of medicinal plants have gained widespread recognition, as is their potential for development from use as traditional into future medicines. T. capensis is an example of these plants. In this study, its medicinal applications, phytochemistry and pharmacological activities are critically reviewed. This study documents the existing indigenous/traditional knowledge related to the use of T. capensis that can be used for future research. © Musara & Aladejana (2020). This is an open-access artcle distributed under the terms of the Creatve Commons Atributon License, which permits unrestricted use, distributon and reproducton in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited (htps://creatvecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). To cite this artcle: Musara C, Aladejana E B. Typha capensis (Rohrb.) N.E.Br. (Typhaceae): morphology, medicinal uses, biological and chemical propertes. Plant Science Today. 2020;7(4):578–583. htps://doi.org/10.14719/pst.2020.7.4.872 Plant Science Today, published by Horizon e-Publishing Group, is covered by Scopus, Web of Science, BIOSIS Previews, Clarivate Analytcs, etc. Full list at htp://www.plantsciencetoday.online PLANT SCIENCE TODAY, 2020 Vol 7(4): 578–583 https://doi.org/10.14719/pst.2020.7.4.872 ISSN 2348-1900 (online) HORIZON e-Publishing Group