Bitter Kola, Garcinia Kola

Garcinia kola is an edible seed, which belongs to a unique group of plants that help organisms to adapt to stress by influencing multiple regulatory systems responsible for stimulus–response coupling such as the immune system and act also as a general anti-infective agent. G. kola, commonly known as bitter kola or male kola, is used in traditional African medicine for the treatment of various infectious diseases, such as hepatitis, infections due to the influenza virus and other viral diseases. The plant elaborates a complex mixture of biflavonoids, prenylated benzonones, xanthones and calanolide-type coumarines. Recently, it has been presented dietary supplements containing G. kola extractives as the main constituent. These products were standardized using the biflavonoids, GB1, GB2 and kolaflavonone as the marker compounds.