The old world as a source of valuable secondary metabolites endowed with diverse pharmacological activities: a review.

is an important genus in the plant kingdom with diverse traditional, industrial, and environmental applications. species are widely distributed in temperate regions and represent about 45% of desert plants. They are a rich source of diverse phytochemical classes, such as alkaloids, cardenolides, triterpenoids, coumarins, flavonoids, isoflavonoids, and phenolic acids. spp. were traditionally used as antihypertensive, anti-inflammatory, and immunostimulants. They attracted great interest from researchers as several pharmacological activities were reported, including analgesic, antipyretic, antioxidant, cytotoxic, hepatoprotective, contraceptive, antidiabetic, neuroprotective, and antimicrobial activities. Genus is one of the most notorious plant genera from the taxonomical point of view. Our study represents a comprehensive review of the previous phytochemical and biological research on the old world secies. It is designed to be a guide for future research on different plant species that still belong to this genus or have been transferred to other genera.