Table 1.

Bitter medicinal plants reported from cosmopolitan or local communities.

Scientific Name	Common Name	Bitter Compounds	Distribution	Ref.
Artemisia absinthium	Ajenjo (span.), Wormwood (eng.)	Thujone, sesquiterpene lactones: absinthin, anabsinthin, anabsin, and artabsin	Cosmopolitan	[10]
Artemisia vulgaris	Altamisa (span.), Mugwort (eng.)	Terpenoids and sesquiterpene lactones	Cosmopolitan	[11]
Azadirachta indica	Nim (span.), Neem (eng.)	Azadirachtin, meliacin, gedunin, nimbidin, nimbolides, salanin, nimbin, valassin, meliacin, limonoid	Indian	[12]
Banisteriopsis caapi	Ayahuasca, yage, capi (span. and indigenous languages)	β-carboline alkaloids	Amazon region	[7]
Coptidis rhizoma	Huang Lian (Chinese)	Alkaloids, lignans, phenylpropanoids, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, and steroids	Traditional Chinese medicine, Japanese traditional herbal medicine (Kampo)	[13]
Garcinia kola	Cola amarga (span.), Orogbo (Yoriba)	Biflavonoids, benzophenones, benzofurans, benzopyran, xanthones, and phytosterols	Traditional African medicine	[14]
Gentiana purpurea	Genciana (span.), Purple Gentian (eng.)	Secoiridoids, amarogentin	Ancient European tradition	[15]
Momordica charantia	Melón amargo (span.), Bitter melon (eng.)	Phenolic components, Kuguaglycoside G, Momordicine	Traditional Chinese medicine	[16]
Phellodendron amurense bark	Amur cork tree (eng.), Huáng bò (Chinese)	Phellodendrine, Berberine	Traditional Chinese medicine	[17]
Verbena officinalis	Verbena (span.), Vervain (eng.)	Iridoids, flavonoids and phenolic acid derivatives	Cosmopolitan	[18]
Vernonia amygdalina	Hoja amarga (span.), Ewuro (Yoruba)	Sesquiterpene lactones: vernodalin, vernolide, hydroxyvernolide	Tongwe (Tanzania)	[19]