TABLE 1.
Natural sources of shikonin and its derivatives.
| Sr. No. | Botanical names | Geographical distribution | Compounds extracted | Traditional uses | Pharmacological uses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Lithospermum erythrorhizon Siebold and Zucc. (Assimopoulou et al., 2009)Common name-Zi Cao and purple gromwell Lu et al. (2011) | Japan, China, and Korea (Naito et al., 1995) | Shikonin, isobutyl shikonin, naphthalenedion, β,β-dimethyl-acryl shikonin, A mixture of two caffeic acids, β-sitosterol Han et al. (2008) | Treatment of burns, skin disease, sore throat, measles, cuts, dyes, food colorant Lu et al. (2011) | Antioxidant, antifungal, antitumor, anti-HIV Han et al. (2008) |
| 2. | Arnebia Decumbens Ventenat) Cosson and Kralik (Al-Mussawi 2010) | Kuwait deserts (Afzal and Al-Oriqat 1986) and south-eastern part of Algeria (Eddine et al., 2016) | Shikonin acetate, shikonin (Afzal and Al-Oriquat 1986), shikonin isovalerate (Afzal and Al-Oriqat 1986), pyrrolizidine alkaloids (El-Shazly and Wink 2014) flavonoids (Eddine et al., 2016) | - | Antimicrobial, antioxidant (Eddine et al., 2016), and anti-inflammatory (Al-Mussawi 2010) |
| 3. | Onosma leptantha Heldr. (Kundakovic et al., 2006) | South Greece (Kundakovic et al., 2006) | Acetylshikonin, iovaleryl shikonin, β,β-dimethylacryl shikonin (Kundakovic et al., 2006) | - | Cytotoxic and anti-inflammatory (Kundakovic et al., 2006) |
| 4. | Arnebia hispidissima (Lehm.) | Egypt (El-Sayed 2010), Deserts of Rajasthan (India), Gujrat (India), Ganga plains (India) (Jain et al., 2000) | Arnebin-7,Arnebin-1, tiglic acid, arnebinol, alkannin, cycloarnebin-7, shikonin (Al-Mussawi 2010) | Used in India for treatment of throat, fever, tongue as an ailment and also used as a tonic for the whole body (Jain et al., 2000) | Anti-ulcer, antibacterial, antioxidant. (Phulwaria and Shekhawat 2013) |
| 5. | Singh et al. (2003) | ||||
| Lithospermum canescens (Michx.) Lehm. (Pietrosiuk and Wiedenfeld (2005) Common name - hoary puccoon (Kittelson et al., 2006) | The southern part of Canada and northern part of the United States Pietrosiuk and Wiedenfeld (2005) | Acetylshikonin, isovaleryl shikonin, isobutyryl shikonin, pyrrolizidine alkaloids, α-methylbutyryl- shikonin Pietrosiuk and Wiedenfeld (2005) | Used as body dye | Anticancer, antibacterial, antifungal, immune-stimulating, and inflammatory. Pietrosiuk and Wiedenfeld (2005) | |
| 6. | Arnebia euchroma (Royle) Johnst. (Assimopoulou et al., 2009) Common name-Sorkh Giyah or Heveh Choaeh (Ghasemi Pirbalouti et al., 2009) | Indian western Himalaya (Singh et al., 2012) Iran (Ghasemi Pirbalouti et al., 2009) | Monoterpenes, 2.1,4-naphthoquinones, organic acids, pyrrolizidine alkaloids, arnebiabinone, octyl ferulate (Liu et al., 2010), shikonin derivatives (Ghasemi Pirbalouti et al., 2009) | Skin disease and anti-inflammatory effect (Ghasemi Pirbalouti et al., 2009) | Anti-inflammatory, antitumor, and antimicrobial (Ghasemi Pirbalouti et al., 2009) |
| 7. | Alkanna tinctoria (L.) Tausch (Assimopoulou et al., 2009)Common name– Ratanjot (Singh et al., 2012) | South Europe (Mita et al., 1994) | Shikonin, alkannin, esters of shikonin and alkannin (Assimopoulou and Papageorgiou 2005) | Romans used it to dye their robes, and for its anti-inflammatory effect (Mita et al., 1994). | Antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, wound healing and antioxidant (Mita et al., 1994) |
| 8. | Dyer’s alkanet | ||||
| Onosma echioides (L.) L. (Nikita et al., 2015) | Apennines hills of Italy (Mengoni et al., 2006) | Alkannins and shikonins (Nikita et al., 2015) | - | Wound-healing (Nikita et al., 2015) | |
| 9. | Jatropha glandulifera RoxbCommon name-Ratanjot (Ballantine 1969) | Pakistan (Ballantine 1969) | 3,3-dimethylacrylylshikonin, acetylshikonin (Ballantine 1969) | Rheumatic pains (Ballantine 1969) | Anti-inflammatory, wound healing, antioxidant activity. (Ballantine 1969) |
| 10. | Lithospermum officinale LCommon name- Pearl gromwell (Al-Snafi 2019) | Asia and Europe (Al-Snafi 2019) | Shikalkin, shikonin, pyrrolizidine alkaloids, polyphenolic acids (Al-Snafi 2019) | Urogenital diseases, and antidiarrhoeal drugs. (Al-Snafi 2019) | Anticancer, antioxidant, and wound-burning healing. (Al-Snafi 2019) |