Lantana camara L. (Verbenaceae).

Lantana camara L. is regarded both as a notorious weed and a popular ornamental garden plant and has found various uses in folk medicine in many parts of the world. Some taxa of the widely variable L. camara complex are toxic to small ruminants and this effect has been associated with the types and relative amounts of some triterpene ester metabolites. However, L. camara also produces a number of metabolites in good yields and some have been shown to possess useful biological activities. All these aspects are considered in this review to allow an evaluation of the potential for utilisation of the large biomass of Lantana available. The phytochemistry of other members of the Lantana genus is included.