Buddleja Species Distributed in Mexico against Inflammatory Diseases, Their Therapeutic Activities, Secondary Metabolites and Biotechnology

B. americana, B. cordata, B. parviflora, B. perfoliata, B. scordioides and B. sessiliflora, belonging to Buddleja Genus, are species distributed in Mexico reported in folk medicine to treat ills related to inflammatory processes. For some of them, this ethnopharmacological uses have been validated by scientific studies. Their phytochemistry has been related for their medicinal properties, being mainly iridoids, flavonoids and phenylethanoids because all of them are secondary metabolites credited with anti-inflammatory biological activity. Particularly, in folk medicine, those plants showing high concentrations of verbascoside secondary metabolite have been traditionally used to treat inflammation. In B. cordata, a cell culture has been developed since plant cell and tissue culture is a biotechnological tool that allows producing bioactive secondary metabolites in high concentrations as an alternative and sustainable form different to extraction from whole wild plants; meantime this protects wild medicinal plants from excessive use and collects. This cell culture produced verbascoside in a higher concentration than whole wild plant and the methanolic extract obtained from the cells demonstrated to be a satisfying anti-inflammatory agent on in vivo pre-clinical studies of acute and chronic inflammation, due to it modulates the production of interleukins expressed during an inflammatory process, lymphocytes tissue concentrations, decrease oxidative stress and leukocyte infiltration. New scientific studies should be done in those Buddleja species distributed in Mexico that have not credited its anti-inflammatory ethnomedicinal effect as well as to start on developing works to establish plant cell and tissue cultures. Moreover, new works should be continued about biotechnological advances on B. cordata. The aim of this work is to review the therapeutic activities, secondary metabolites and biotechnology advances of Buddleja species distributed in Mexico used against inflammatory diseases.