Phytochemical Constituents, Pharmacological Activities, and Human Health

Several active biochemical compounds with pharmacological actives have been identified from the leaf, stem, fruit, and root of M. alba and M. nigra. These are given in Tables 7.1 and 7.2. The reports on the M. alba leaves mention about various phytochemicals, notable among these being alkaloids (1-deoxynojirimycin, fagomine) (Taniguchi et al. 1998; Hu et al. 2013), phenols, and polyphenols (flavonoids, quercetin, isoquercitrin, rutin, kaempferide, neochlorogenic acid, cryptochlorogenic acid, chlorogenic acid isomer, kaempferol-3-O-(6-malonyl)-glucoside, quercetin-3-O-(6-malonyl)-glucoside, quercetin-3-O-glucoside, quercetin-3,7-O-β-glucopyranoside, quercetin-rutinoside isomer, kaempferol-3,7-glucopyranoside, quercetin-3-O-6″-O-acetyl-β-glucopyranoside, and kaempferol-3-O-6″-O-acetyl-β-glucopyranoside) (Memon et al. 2010; Thabti et al. 2012; Eva et al. 2015).