**1. Introduction**

The Green economy concept has been driven as an urgent need for addressing global challenges in vital fields like energy, environment, and health. Green economy is expected to play a very important role in changing the way that society manages the interaction of the environmental and economic domains. Consequently, a new paradigm has been established and shifted toward green economy or green growth. Natural products represent one of the most important elements required to build safe and effective economy especially in health sector. South Africa (SA) is recognized as one of the most biodiverse

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

country in the world with 20,456 indigenous vascular plant taxa recorded where 13,265 (65%) are endemic [1, 2].

(**2**), 3*β*-acetoxy-7,15-isopimaradien-19-ol (**3**) and 19-acetoxy-7,15-isopimaradien-3*β*-ol (**4**), 7,15-isopimaradien-19-ol (**5**, akhdarenol) and 7,15-isopimaradien-3*β*,19-diol (**6**, virescenol), a mixture of 19-isobutyryloxy- and 19-butyryloxy-8*β*-hydroxy-15-isopimarene (**7**), and a 3:1 mixture of 5-stigmasten-3*β*-ol and *β*-sitosterol were isolated from the aerial parts of

Chemistry of South African Lamiaceae: Structures and Biological Activity of Terpenoids

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.77399

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*Ballota* is represented by one species in SA *vizB africana*. Hispanolone (**8**) was isolated from

*Cedronella* genus is represented by only one species in SA *viz C. canariensis*. The phytochemical studies of the aerial parts resulted in isolation of a dimer of *d*-pinocarvone (**9**), cedronellone

Seven species were recorded in SA and clerodendrumic acid (**12**) was isolated from *C. glabrum* var. *glabrum* and showed weak antifungal, antibacterial, and cytotoxic activities

*Hoslundia* genus is represented by one species in SA *vizH. opposite*. The phytochemical studies of the aerial parts yielded an interesting and rare pyrano and furanoflavonoid derivatives in addition to euscaphic and (**13**) ursolic acid (**11**) [19, 20]; four abietane-type esters, 3-*O*-cinnamoylhosloppone (**14**), 3-*O*-benzoylhosloppone (**15**), 3-*O*-benzoylhosloquinone (**16**), and 3-*O*-benzoylhinokiol (**17**); 13 was found to exhibit MIC of 50 μg/mL against

Three species were recorded in SA. The triterpenes 3*α*,19*α*-dihydroxyurs-12-en-28-oic acid (**18**) and 3*β*-acetoxyoleanan-13*β*,28-olide (**19**), Me betulinate (**20**), oleanolic acid/acetate (**21/22**),

From *H. spicigera,* seven labdane diterpenes; 19-acetoxy-2*α*,7*α*,15-trihydroxylabda-8(17),(13*Z*)-diene (**24**); 15,19-diacetoxy-2*α*,7*α-*dihydroxylabda-8(17),(13*Z*)-diene (**25**); 7*α*,15,19-triacetoxy-2*α*-hydroxylabda-8(17),(13*Z*)-diene (**26**); 19-acetoxy-2*α*,7*α*-dihydroxylabda-8(17),(13*Z*)-dien-15-al (**27**); 19-acetoxy-7*α*,15-dihydroxylabda-8(17),(13*Z*)-dien-2-one (**28**); 2*α*,7*α*,15,19-tetrahydroxy-ent-labda-8(17), (13Z)-diene (**29**); and 19-acetoxy-2*R*,7*R*-dihydroxylabda-14,15-dinorlabd-8(17)-en-13-one (**30**) were

of *Plasmodium falciparum*

*M. tuberculosis*, while 14 inhibits the growth of the MDR strain K1

and ursolic (**11**) and maslinic acids (**23**) were isolated from *H. mutabilis* [22].

in vitro with an IC50-value of 0.4 μg/mL [21].

*A. rydingianus*. 5 and 6 showed activity against *S. aureus* and *Enterococcus hirae* [15].

**2.2.** *Ballota* **genus**

the aerial parts [16].

**2.3.** *Cedronella* **genus**

(**10**), and ursolic acid (**11**) [17].

**2.4.** *Clerodendrum* **genus**

**2.5.** *Hoslundia* **genus**

**2.6.** *Hyptis* **genus**

isolated from the aerial parts [23].

[18].

The Lamiaceae (formerly Labiateae, mint family) is a cosmopolitan family with ~7136 species in 236 genera. Most species are shrubby or herbaceous and trees are extremely rare [3]. The Lamiaceae family has great economic value, as it contains several horticultural species, most of which are used as culinary herbs like salvia, rosemary, ocimum, mint, *Leonotis*, etc. Lamiaceae species are known to contain pharmacologically active terpenoids with a wide spectrum of bioactivity and expected to play more important roles in the process of drug discovery as well as cosmetic, food, and pesticides industries [4–6]. In the Sub-Saharan region, ~60 genera with ±980 species were reported [7]. SA considers as a diversity spot of Lamiaceae with ±308 species in 41 genera [8]. The species occur predominantly in the summer and/or winter rainfall areas. The habitats are different and vary to a great extent [9].

However, the South African flora is one of the most important mega floras for its unique diversity and endemism, it receives low attention in terms of bioprospecting, and the number of research paper every year dealing with chemical/biological profiling is still beyond the required level. This review serves as a background for the chemistry of all species belonging to the family Lamiaceae growing in SA and it covers publications till 2017. The articles information's abstracted from Sci-finder database [10] and includes all species growing in SA as well as other places. This chapter doesn't cover the essential oils and *Plectranthus barbatus*, which recently reviewed by others [11, 12].
