What is it about?
Murraya koenigii, an aromatic tropical and sub-tropical plant belonging to the Rutaceae family, is valued for its culinary, medicinal, and industrial applications. Its fresh leaves contain 23.73% alkaloids, 1.24% flavonoids, 8.74% saponins, 4.4% phenolics, 5.2% tannins, and some volatile oil, while the stem bark and roots yield carbazole alkaloids and triterpenes with notable medicinal properties. Murraya koenigii exhibits a broad spectrum of biological activities, including anti-inflammatory, cytotoxic, antidiabetic, antimicrobial, anticancer, antioxidant, anthelminthic, and hepatoprotective effects. Polyherbal mouthwashes with Murraya koenigii, Acacia nilotica, Psidium guajava, and Eucalyptus hybrid effectively prevent dental issues such as caries and plaque-induced gingivitis. Additionally, crude extracts from its leaves provide benefits like lipid-lowering, anti-diabetic, anti-diarrheal, and antihypertensive properties, and the whole plant is valued for treating bronchial respiratory problems, reducing cholesterol, and enhancing digestion. Murraya koenigii leaves oil showed quite remarkable cholinesterase inhibitory activity and its derivatives also show significant pharmacological activities, including anticarcinogenic, proapoptotic, antiangiogenic, and neuroprotective effects, helping to alleviate oxidative stress, neurotoxicity, and cognitive dysfunction. It is evident that Murraya koenigii plant extract is very promising for the metallic nanoparticle synthesis with the optimization reaction of conditions including reaction time, pH of the solution, temperature, etc. Despite its advantages, large-scale nanoparticle production faces concerns about repeatability in physio-chemical properties and toxicity, necessitating further research into optimizing and quantifying essential phytochemical constituents, metallic precursors, and assessing the toxicity of the final products. This chapter covers the phytochemical analysis of Murraya koenigii, its practical uses for everyday people, recent research applications, and potential future directions to enhance its accessibility and benefits for the general public.
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Why is it important?
This chapter is really important because it turns Murraya koenigii from a spice used in cooking into something that science says can really help people. We use curry leaves a lot in our food in India and Southeast Asia. Now that we know they have properties it can help make healthcare cheaper and easier for people who usually rely on traditional remedies. The special compounds in the stem bark and roots of Murraya koenigii like mahanine and koenigine have been found to have -cancer effects. They can help kill cancer cells and stop blood vessels from forming, which is good for finding new ways to treat cancer. Murraya koenigii also helps with problems in the brain by reducing stress and neurotoxicity. This can help people with Alzheimers and dementia making this research very valuable for finding treatments, for these conditions.
Perspectives
The Murraya koenigii, which is also known as the curry leaf plant is really good for connecting wellness and modern biotechnology. It tells a story that starts with science and then moves to how we can use it and what we can do with it in the future.
JEMI PATEL
Uka Tarsadia University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Multipurpose Plant - Murraya koenigii, April 2026, Bentham Science Publishers,
DOI: 10.2174/9798898813062126060008.
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