Table 3.

Established literature reports on the pharmacological potentials of Crescentia cujete Linn.

S/N	Part used	Extract type	Type of assay	Concentrations tested	Pharmacological activity	Country of study	Reference
1	Fruit	Decoction, crude ethanolic, aqueous and fractions (hexane, and ethyl acetate)	In vitro (purgative test)	5000, 10000, 20000 ppm	Anthelmintic	Philippines	[13]
			In vitro (TLC)	NS	Antioxidant
			In vitro (BSLT)	10, 100, 1000 ppm	Extract showed LC50 lower than 1000 indicating bioactivity and toxicity to the cells
2	Fruit	Ethanol (crude), decoctions and fractions (aqueous, ethyl acetate, hexane)	In vitro (α-amylase assay)	100, 1000, 10000 ppm	Hexane fraction exhibited inhibition above average (55%) at the highest concentration, while other (extracts aqueous and ethanol) at 10000 ppm showed moderate antidiabetic effect.	Philippines	[46]
			In vivo (alloxan –induced diabetic mice)	5000, 10000 ppm	Similar trend of the extracts (hexane, ethanol and aqueous) reduces the diabetic blood glucose level of the Mus musculus indicating an hypoglycemic potential
3	Leaves	Ethanol	In vivo (alloxan –induced diabetic mice)	2500, 5000, 10000 ppm	Antidiabetic effect by reducing the blood glucose level of the diabetes mice toward control	Philippines	[37]
	Fruit	Fresh and boiled (decoction)	In vivo (alloxan –induced diabetic mice)	NS	Lowers the blood glucose level of the diabetic mice comparable to that of the control (metformin) indicating hypoglycemic effect	Philippines	[47]
4	Leaves and stem bark	Ethanol (crude) and fractions	In vitro (DPPH, FRP, TAC)	20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 140, 160, 180, 200 μg/mL	Scavenges the activities of the tested radicals indicating antioxidative effect	Bangladesh	[40]
5	Leaves, bark and fruits	Ethanol (100, 50%), aqueous	In vitro (DPPH)	31.25, 62.5, 125, 250, 500 μg/mL	Leaves (particularly 100% ethanol) and bark established good antioxidant activities (IC50 within the tested concentrations)	Malaysia	[10]
			In vitro (BSLT and ASLA)	1.953, 3.907, 7.813, 15.625, 31.25, 62.50, 125, 250, 500, 1000 μg/mL	All parts (leaves > bark > fruits) of the plant extracted with three types of solvents are bioactive and cytotoxic (exhibited LC50 lower than 1000)
6	Leaves and bark	Ethanol (crude) and fractions (chloroform, pet. Ether)	In vivo (HRBC membrane stabilization method)	100 and 1000 µg/mL	At the highest concentration of 1.0 mg/mL, the crude ethanol extract of leaves and bark produced 53.86 and 61.85 inhibition of RBC hemolysis better than the fractions suggestive of good anti-inflammatory effect	Bangladesh	[48]
			In vitro (disc diffusion method)	100 and 200 µg/disc	Excellent antibacterial effect (particularly from the chloroform fraction)
7	Leaves	Ethanol, chloroform, CCl4, petroleum ether	In vitro (agar-cup method and macro-dilution broth technique)	1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5 and 5.0 g/mL	Ethanol was most active against 5 of the bacteria strains and also revealed the lowest MIC (2.5 mg/mL) and MBC (4.5 mg/mL) against B. cereus revealing the antibacterial activity of the plant	Bangladesh	[7]
8	Leaves (latex)	Ethanol	In vitro (agar diffusion method)	NS	Active against E. coli indicating its antibacterial activity	Peru	[5]
9	Fruit	NS	In vitro (disc test)	0.165, 0.078, 0.313, 0.625, 1.250, 2.50, 5.00, 10.00 mg/mL	The extract inhibited the growth of the bacterium strain (Vibrio harveyi) at higher concentrations (0.313–10.00) suggesting that the MIC is 0.313 mg/mL, thus indicative of antibacterial activity	Indonesia	[49]
		Methanol (crude) and fractions (hexane, ethyl acetate)	In vitro (agar diffusion)	10.00 mg/mL	Methanol was most active against Vibrio harveyi with 17.29 mm inhibition zone	Indonesia	[34]
10	Fruit	Ethanol	In vivo (acute toxicity evaluation)	OECD 425 protocol	Safe at 2000 mg/kg bodyweight	India	[51]
			In vitro	100, 200 and 400 mg/kg	At 400 mg/kg body weight, it neutralized lethality induced by 2LD50 and 3LD50 of the venom (in-vivo neutralization) while neutrality was achieved at 200 and 400 mg/kg (in vitro). Haemorrhage produced by venom (in rats) was inhibited at 200 mg/kg indicating better antivenom activity
11	Leaves	Ethanol, ethyl acetate	In vivo (Excisional wound)	NS	Extracts enhances the rate of healing. On the 9th day, a 50 and 65% healing with ethanol and ethyl acetate respectively achieved. This was improved by the 15th day with both extracts achieving 100% healing indicating good wound-healing capability	Indonesia	[9]
12	Stem bark, leaves	Aqueous, ethanol	In vitro ((L-J) medium and Middlebrook 7H9 broth in BacT/ALERT 3D system)	2%, 4% v/v	While all the extracts were able to inhibit the different strains of M. tuberculosis with percentage inhibition above 50%, the aqueous stem bark was reported to have the most effective anti-tubercular potential	India	[50]
13	Leaves	Methanol (crude) and fractions (hexane, ethyl acetate, and butanol)	In vitro (DPPH, FRAP methods)	15.625, 31.25, 62.50, 125, 250, 500 µg/mL	The extracts revealed strong antioxidant activity with EC50 within the tested concentration except hexane fraction	Nigeria	[8]
			In vivo (CAT, SOD, LPO)	200 and 400 mg/kg	At both concentrations, the extracts dose-dependently reversed the activities of the enzymes to normal. Additionally, at the highest concentration of 400 mg/kg, the extracts reduced the increased level of malondialdehyde (brought about by induced oxidative stress) to normal. The reduction is comparable to the control
			In vivo (acute toxicity test)	2000 and 5000 mg/kg body weight	No signs of toxicity in the animals at the tested concentrations, indicating the LD50 is above 5000 mg/kg, hence safe
14	Leaves	Methanol	In vitro (DPPH and ABTS)	1, 3, 9, 27, 81, 243 µg/mL	Showed good antioxidant capacity with an IC50 of 34.01 (DPPH) and 3.80 µg/mL (ABTS). The activity is attributed to inherent phenolics	Brazil	[1]
15	Fruit	Ethanol (33%)	In vitro (AIT and LPT test)	0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, and 10.0% w/v	The extract caused an 100% mortality of Rhipicephalus microplus at the highest concentration of 10% w/v after 24 hr depicting an LC50 of 5.9% and LC95 between 5.6 and 6.2% indicative of its acaricidal effect	Brazil	[29]
16	Leaves	Ethanol	In vitro (SH-SY5Y cell induced by MPTP on MTT SRB test)	10, 20, 40, 80, 160m and 320 µg/mL	The extract depicted an IC50 of 159.29 µg/mL (MTT) and 162.5 µg/mL with Trypan blue exclusion assay thus afforded a good cytotoxic and neuroprotection	India	[52]
17	Fruit	Methanol	In vitro (CAM assay)	0.12, 0.24, 0.35, and 0.47 g/mL	The extracts at all concentrations were able to reduce significantly CAM vasculature though the effect was more pronounced at 0.35 and 0.47 concentrations, thus indicative of the antiangiogenic effect.	Philippines	[53]
18	Fruit		In vitro (purgative assay)			Philippines	[13]
19	Stembark	Ethanol (70%)	In vitro (HRBC membrane stabilization method)	50, 100, 250, 500, 1000 µg/mL	Activity better than diclofenac exhibiting an in IC50 value of 5.62 µg/mL reflecting commendable anti-inflammatory activity	Ghana	[54]
			In vivo (carrageenan induction on chicks)	10, 30, 100, 300 mg/kg bodyweight	Revealed an EC50 value of 23.30 mg/kg b.w. Indicating good anti-inflammatory potentials

NS: not stated; DPPH: 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) radical; ABTS: 2,2′-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid; FRP: Ferric reducing power (FRP); TAC: Total antioxidant capacity; TLC: Thin layer chromatography; BSLT: Brine shrimp lethality test; ASLA: Artemia salina lethality assay; HRBC: human red blood cell (HRBC); OECD: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development; LJ: Lowenstein Jensen; CCl₄: Carbon tetrachloride; CAT: Catalase; SOD: Superoxide dismutase; LPO: Lipid peroxidation; FRAP: Ferric reducing antioxidant power; AIT: Adult immersion test; LPT: Larval packed test; MPTP: 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine; MTT: 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide; CAM: Chorioallantoic Membrane.