Chemical and biological research of Clematis medicinal resources

Clematis is a botanical source for various pharmaceutically active components, which has long been used in conventional medicine since the beginning of Chinese civilization. Increasing interest in Clematis medicinal resources has led to additional discoveries of triterpenoid saponins, flavonoids, coumarins, alkaloids and many other compounds in various Clematis species, and to investigations on their chemotaxonomy, molecular phylogeny and pharmacology. In continuation with our studies on Clematis chemistry and biology, we review the chemistry, chemotaxonomy, molecular biology and phylogeny of Clematis and their relevance to drug efficacy and drug development. Various databases and technology have been used in literature search in order to characterize the global scientific effort. It is essential to study more species for both the sustainable utilization of Clematis medicinal resources and finding novel compounds with potential clinical utility. Systems biology and omics technologies will play an increasingly important role in future medicinal research involving bioactive compounds of Clematis.