Traditional Uses, Phytochemistry, Pharmacology and Toxicology of Ruta graveolens L.: A Critical Review and Future Perspectives

Medicinal plants are fundamental sources of natural products with high chemical diversity and specificity as novel lead compounds with diverse pharmacological activities. Ruta graveolens L. is an important traditional Chinese medicine used to treat fever caused by cold, wind-fire toothache, headache, bruises and sprains, irregular menstruation, and infantile eczema. Although various traditional uses and chemical constituent activity evaluations have been reported, no systematic review and future perspective of R. graveolens has been published. A total of 113 literature about R. graveolens were collected from online scientific databases, including SciFinder, PubMed, CNKI, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Additional information was obtained from other sources of literature, such as the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, Flora of China, classical Chinese herbal books and local prints and scripts. Herein, we comprehensively review the traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and toxicology of R. graveolens, and provide critical comments and meaningful perspectives for the future development of this medicinal plant.