Orientin: a natural glycoside with versatile pharmacological activities

Orientin is one of the flavonoid glycosides with diverse biological properties such as anticancer, antioxidant, neuroprotective, cardioprotective, antiallergic, and anti-inflammatory. It is found in several plants like rooibos tea, <i>Ocimum sanctum</i>, <i>Trollius</i>, <i>Passiflora</i>, and <i>Phyllostachys</i> species. This review aimed to summarise the various medicinal properties of the orientin focusing on its underlying molecular mechanism reported based on <i>in-vitro</i> and <i>in-vivo</i> studies. The data were collected using various search engines, incorporating PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and SpringerLink. Our findings showed that orientin exhibited promising anticancer, neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant activities. Hopefully, this information could assist drug researchers and pharmaceutical entities in finding an effective herbal drug for the treatment of different disorders with potential mechanisms of action. Meanwhile, further investigations are warranted such as oral bioavailability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamic characteristics of orientin to establish fully drug profiling suitable for clinical trials.