Exploring the Medicinal Properties of Gossypium barbadense: A Comprehensive Review of its Bioactive Compounds and Therapeutic Applications

According to the 2016 Gossypium barbadense Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, there are 4225 recognised species in the 243 genera that make up the Malvaceae family. This family is well-known worldwide and belongs to the primary angiosperm group, The Plant List (2013) states. This databank contains ratings for 14,539 scientific plant names and species for this family. This is because these 4465 are recognised species names that are part of 245 plant genera. The living form is typically a shrub, tree, herb, liana, fickle, creeper, or subshrub. It is found in terriculture, apiculture, aquatic, and hemiepiphyte substrates.¹ Gossypium barbadense has been utilised for its medicinal, textile, and culinary properties to help people. This plant, which belongs to the genus Gossypium and is commonly referred to as "cotton," was initially discovered in Mexico and Peru. Different parts of G. barbadense are used to treat colds, diarrhoea, gout, and skin disorders as well as neurological, ear, respiratory, and reproductive problems in Brazil, India, and Africa.² Along with its economic significance, the medicinal qualities of Gossypium species' leaves, roots, bark, and seeds have been the subject of much investigation.³ Upland cotton has shown genetic improvement and population divergence in several studies.⁴ There is very little evidence of the introduction of sea-island cotton to China. A tiny amount of sea-island cotton was planted at the start of the 20th century in Kaiyuan County, Yunnan Province, China, where the subtropical environment is ideal for year-round cotton growing.⁵ Another research separated sea-island cotton into four groups, each of which represented a Gb landrace, an obsoleting Gb cultivar, a contemporary Gb cultivar, and a Xinjiang Gb cultivar.^6,7 Punjab, Rajasthan, and Haryana are the three Indian states that produce the most G. barbadense According to Ayurveda, this plant can help alleviate diseases caused by the three main energies of pitta, kapha, and vata. The petals have the ability to boost a woman's breast milk production, ether extracts identified 48 chemicals, of which were significant and accounted for 56.29% of the total peak areas. Determine the 16 main phenolic compounds from the methanolic extract using liquid chromatography, electrospray ionisation, and mass spectrometry.⁹

METHODOLOGY   

Research on G. barbadense's ethnobotany and pharmacology was gathered and examined. A literature search was performed from August to November 2024 using various sources, including PUBMED, PubChem, Science Direct, and Google Scholar, for articles published in the last 40 years (1984 to 2024). Include important words such as phytochemistry, pharmacological activity, and pharmacological content (such as antibacterial and antioxidant properties, etc.); many documents were selected to conduct species-target research only in English. The research literature for this article is limited to research articles that are accessible to the scientific community and described in the literature mentioned above.

Phytochemical Present In Gossypium Barbadense

The primary components of G. barbadense bolls, which may have contributed to their medicinal potential, include hydroxybenzoic acid, isorhamnetin-3-O-glucuronide, cinnamaldehyde, sulphate, and epigallocatechin gallate, according to the methanolic extract of the plant. However, the leaves methanolic extract show the presence of several key compounds, including kaempferol, quercetin-3-O-pentoside, kaempferol-3-sulphate, kaempferol-3-O-glucuronide, aspalathin, epigallocatechin allate, the kaempferol-3,7,4'-trimethylether, and protocatechuic acid-3-O-glucoside. In addition, Gossypium barbadense includes gallic acid, p-hydroxybenzoic acid, hydroxybenzoic acids (HDBA), cyanogenic glycosides, alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, and saponins.^10,11

Plant Description

Sea Island cotton grows at heights of up to 1,500 meters in the dry to moist tropics and subtropics. The plant is a shrub that grows to a height of about three meters. They have terminal, solitary flowers; petiolate, ovate, and oblong leaves; and glabrous, oblong-ovoid capsules that are 3–7 cm long.²

Habitat

Another name for Gossypium barbadense is Gallini cotton. The plant has black seeds and yellow blooms, and it is a tropical perennial that is susceptible to cold. It produces cotton with exceptionally long, silky fibers and grows as a shrub or small tree. Gossypium barbadense is mostly farmed in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, and Haryana. It was first found in southwest Ecuador and northwest Peru.¹

Colds, gout, diarrhoea, gastrointestinal issues, typhoid fever, acne, earache, dysentery, stomach pains, postpartum care, and skin conditions are all treated using various portions of Gossypium barbadense.¹⁹ Rheumatism, musculoskeletal, inflammatory, and infectious conditions, kidneys, conjunctivitis, malaria, cutaneous and subcutaneous parasite infections, venereal illnesses, typhoid fever, and acne have all been treated with it in traditional folk medicine.²⁰

Pharmacological Actions

Pharmacological studies of plants offer a scientific account of their therapeutic qualities, as well as their advantages and disadvantages for the body. Support for the plant's continued formulation and application is also provided by this.

Antimalarial Activity

An albino mouse model was employed in this work for both therapeutic and suppressive objectives. Chloroquine (5 mg/kg) served as the positive control. G. barbadense leaf aqueous extract (250, 500 mg/kg, and 1000 mg/kg) was tested for its antimalarial properties against Plasmodium berghei. When compared to 100% chloroquine, the results showed that the water-based extract (1000 mg/kg) significantly demonstrated modest inhibitory effects against P. berghei in mice.Additionally, compared to chloroquine, extracts at 500 and 1000 mg/kg increased the curative effects till day 17 by 12.10±27.0 and 16.09±32.1, respectively.²¹

Antibacterial activity

The Nigerian plant Gossypium barbadense L. (Malvaceae) produces essential oil. According to GC and GC/MS tests, this oil's chemical composition consists of 19 components, which together make up the oil fraction's 92.6%. The main components were bornyl acetate (18.6%), tricyclene (29.6%), isoleucine (6.0%), terpinene (11.1%), and pinene (12.8%). There were notably fewer sesquiterpenoid molecules that included oxygen. It was observed that the sample under study was devoid of the distinctive indicators of the essential oil of some Gossypium species, specifically copaene, bisabolol, bisabolene oxide, and caryophyllene oxide. The oil had little antibacterial qualities, according to several species studied.²²

Cytotoxic and antimicrobial activities

In keeping with the global desire and necessity to discover sustainable methods of generating cytotoxic and antibacterial properties, our research emphasises the distinct chemical composition of G. barbadense stem. Utilising headspace gas chromatography/mass spectrometry to assess petroleum ether extracts, 48 compounds were identified, 13 of which were significant and accounted for 56.29% of the total peak areas. From the methanolic extract, 16 main phenolic components were separated using liquid chromatography-electrospray ionisation-mass spectrometry. The antibacterial properties of petroleum ether and methanolic extracts were evaluated using the disc diffusion technique against four pathogenic bacterial strains: Escherichia coli ATCC 10536, Salmonella enterica ATCC 14028, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 9027, and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538. Two fungus strains, Aspergillus niger, and Aspergillus fumigatus, were tested for their antifungal properties.²³

Antihypertensive effect

In traditional medicine, Gossypium barbadense L. is used to treat hypertension. In an attempt to provide a scientific justification for this application, the decoction of the leaves was shown to have a blood pressure-lowering effect. In rats under anaesthesia, fraction II of the G. barbadense crude extract exhibited a dose-dependent hypotensive effect. The effect of fraction II on decreasing blood pressure was nearly eliminated in rats treated with hexamethonium. Blood pressure increased after the benefit of reducing blood pressure slightly diminished. Rats given hexamethonium saw a decrease in blood pressure when phentolamine was administered. Atropine at high doses (4 mg/rat) inhibited the effects of depressants as well as cardiac effects. Atropine did not impede the rat's ileum from contracting, according to in vitro tests.²⁴

Antiulcer

Plants in the genus Gossypium have been used for thousands of years to treat a variety of illnesses, including ulcers. In this study, indomethacin-induced oxidative gastric ulcers in Wistar rats were used to assess the membrane-stabilising and detoxifying properties of the aqueous extract of Gossypium barbadense L. (Malvaceae) leaves. The extract and esomeprazole were orally administered to the ulcer-bearing rats as pretreatment for 4 weeks. The evaluation of stomach function and antioxidant measures followed. In mice administered the extract, the indomethacin-induced rise in ulcer index, stomach volume, pepsin activity, and mucosal malondialdehyde levels was significantly reduced in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, in ulcerated rats, the extract changed and markedly increased the levels of glutathione (reduction), pH, mucin content, and stomach catalase and superoxide dismutase activities.²⁵

Gossypium barbadense hormone alterations associated with leaf senescence

By analysing the sequential changes in gibberellins, indoleacetic acid, and abscisic acid in the cotyledons from the completion of expansion through senescence (days 12–24 after sowing), the hormonal regulation of foliar senescence in cotton (Gossypium barbadense L, cv., Giza 68, long staple) was investigated. Senescence began to appear on day 20 when the accumulation of leaf metabolites was at its highest. Free GAs now rapidly discard almost 40% of their original activity. The senescent leaves thereafter showed a marked further decline in free GAs. The senescence system may be influenced by both hormones, as evidenced by the notable rise in free IAA and free ABA between days 18 and 20, which is promptly followed by food deficiency.²⁶

Acute oral toxicity test of Gossypium barbadense

The test was carried out utilising the limit dose test of the up-and-down. method with a limit dosage of 5000 mg/kg body weight/oral route in accordance with OECD Test Guideline 425 on Acute Oral Toxicity (OECD, 2006). Finally, out of 10 female rats (6–8 weeks old), three were chosen at random. The population sample's weight disparities were selected to remain within ± 10% of the sample population's initial mean weight. Each time, the animals were given a dosage after fasting all night. Weighing and administering a single oral dose of the extract at a rate of 5000 mg/kg body weight (b.w.) was done on one rat at a time.²⁷

Genetic improvement of Egyptian cotton (Gossypium barbadense L.)

In 2016, predetermined criteria were used to select the top 5% of plants. from the F2 population. The superior families from the F3 generation were chosen to become the F4 families in 2017.These were cultivated in bulk trials and single-plant progeny rows using a randomised full-block design with three replications over the summer of 2018. The majority of characteristics exhibited rising population mean values with time, with the F2 generation exhibiting larger genotypic variance and phenotypic coefficient of variation values for the traits under study than the subsequent generations. In the F3 and F4 generations, the magnitudes of GCV and PCV were comparable, suggesting that genotype had been more important than environment.²⁸Additionally, the mean values of heritability in the broadest sense increased from generation to generation. The majority of yield and its component traits were improved by selection criteria I2, I4, and I5, whereas earliness attributes were improved by selection criterion I1. The majority of the yield and its constituent characteristics exhibited a strong and positive relationship with one another, underscoring their significance in cotton production. This implies that choosing to enhance one of these characteristics would enhance the others. The best genotypes for important yield characters were found in families 9, 13, 19, 20, and 21, outperforming the superior parent and check varieties and providing the greatest values for the majority of the characters. In order to create varieties with high yields and their constituent parts, the breeder might thus keep using these families as breeding genotypes in subsequent generations.^29,30