Review Article PHYTOCHEMICAL AND PHARMACOLOGICAL PROPERTIES OF ANNONA MURICATA: A REVIEW GAJALAKSHMI S, VIJAYALAKSHMI S AND DEVI RAJESWARI V * School of Biosciences and Technology, VIT University, Vellore 14, Tamilnadu, India. Email: sdevirajeswari@gmail.com Received: 20 Oct 2011, Revised and Accepted: 28 Nov 2011 ABSTRACT In the present review, an attempt has been made to congregate the traditional, phytochemical and pharmacological studies done on an important medicinal plant Annona muricata, (Family annonaceae). Cyclo hexapeptides, acetogenins, annonaceous acetogenins were the major phytochemical compounds studied from this medicinal plant. The fruit is of economic value and hence cultivated and used widely as an edible food. The plant possess the major pharmacological activities includes cytotoxic, antileishmanial, wound healing, anti-microbial activity. It also has the anti- carcinogenic and genotoxic effect. Phytochemical analysis of the plant revealed the presence of tannins, steroids and cardiac glycosides which are the major phytochemical compounds. The pulp obtained from the plant shows the thermal diffusivity property. This review encompasses the potential application of the above plant in the pharmaceutical field due to its wide pharmacological activities. As the fruit of this plant is highly nutritious this paves the ways to work in future on its potential to serve as an edible vaccine. Keywords: Annona muricata, Phytochemical compounds, Pharmacological activities. INTRODUCTION All over the world the herbal medicine acts as the representative of the most important fields of traditional medicine. The study on the medicinal plants is essential to promote the proper use of herbal medicine in order to determine their potential as a source for the new drugs 1 . Medicinal plants have been used for the treatment of illness since before recorded history. The sacred Vedas dating back between 3500 B.C and 800 B.C gives many references of the utilization of the medicinal plants. “Virikshayurveda” is one of the remotest works in the traditional herbal medicine which was compiled even before the beginning of Christian era. “Rig Veda” is one of the oldest literatures which was written around 2000 B.C. and mentions the use of Cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum), Ginger (Zingiber officinale), Sandalwood (Santalum album) etc was used not only in the religious ceremonies but also in the medical preparations 2 . The relationship between food and medicine was quoted as “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food”. 3 Plants and plant-based medicaments are used as the basis of many of the modern pharmaceuticals that we use today in order to treat our various ailments 4 . The better understanding of the plant derived medicine depends mainly on two factors that have gone hand in hand. One criterion involves the proof to show that the formulated medicine does what it is claimed to do and other is the identification of the active compound by means of the chemical analysis 5 . According to world health organization (WHO), greater than 80% of the total world’s population depends on the traditional medicines in order to satisfy their primary health care needs. It also suggested in improving the technologies for cultivation of medicinal plants 6 . The chemical substances of the medicinal plants which have the capacity of exerting a physiologic action on the human body were the primary features. The bioactive compounds of plants such as alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins and phenolic compounds were considered to be most important. The phytochemical research that has been done based on the ethno-pharmacological information forms the effective approach in the discovery of new anti-infective agents from higher plants 7 . Annona muricata L. belongs to the family of Annonaceae has a widespread pantropical distribution and has been pridely known as corossol. It is a widespread small tree and has its native in Central America 8 . The fruit of Annona muricata Linn. is found to be edible in Yunnan province of China 9 and their fruits is used commercially for the production of juice, candy and sherbets . Intensive chemical investigations of the leaves and seeds of this species have resulted in the isolation of a great number of acetogenins. The isolated compounds display some of the interesting biological or the pharmacological activities, such as antitumoral, cytotoxicity, antiparasitic and pesticidal properties. Roots of these species are used in traditional medicine due to their antiparasitical and pesticidal properties 10 . Annona muricata which is also called as the so ur-sop, sir sak or guanabana has been named as popular fruit tree that is cultivated throughout the tropical regions of the world .The seeds and leaves of these species was found to contain more than 50 mono-THF acetogenins. Some of the key intermediates that are involved in the biosynthesis of these acetogenins has been isolated from this species recently and were named as epomuricenins-A and B, montecristin, cohibins-A and B, muridienins-1 and 2, muridienins-3 and 4, muricadienin and chatenaytrienins-1, 2 and 3 and also a new compound called as sabadelin which might be a biogenetic precursor of cis-panatellin 11 . Guanabana is found to grow more in many of the regions of the tropical world was extensively studies for the exploration of the new Annonaceous acetogenins from its bark, seeds and leaves which possess much of the diverse biological activities. Studies done on the leaves of A. muricata has been resulted in the isolation of eight cytotoxic acetogenins 12 . Fruit Description The soursop from the Annonaceae family is found to be the most important tropical fruit that contributes much to the wider economic growth of some of the tropical countries such as tropical America, Australia, Africa and Malaysia. The soursop flavor possess a maximum of 114 volatile compounds that is found to be responsible for the whole aroma profile, 44 esters, 25 terpenes, 10 alcohols, 9 aldehydes and ketones, 7 aromatic compounds, 5hydrocarbons, 3 acids, 3 lactones and 8 other miscellaneous compounds . Soursop gives a flavor of custard when it is ripen condition and hence has a pleasant, distinctive aroma and fibrous pulp that can be consumed because of its very juicy, creamy and sweet character. The fruit has a weight of about four kilograms and it is found to be the largest in its family that lends itself to be the processed into various other products such as juice blends, nectars, syrups, jams, jellies and ice-creams. This unique flavor of soursop increases its processed products to possess much potential in the international market. Esters were found to be the dominant compounds regardless of the soursop’s origin, with methyl (E)-2-hexenoate, methyl (E)-2- butenoate, methyl butanoate and methyl hexanoate being the four principal compounds. There are different methods that have been employed for the flavor compounds analysis, among which the most common methods are solvent- and steam distillation– extraction 13 .                