**7. Clinical Trials**

Finally, it is essential to note that medicinal plants are used to prevent and treat diseases by humans, being used by about 80% of the population for primary health care. The rich biodiversity of the Brazilian cerrado offers a unique and incomparable potential for discovering and developing bioactive agents. Therefore, clinical trials with metabolites isolated from these species are of fundamental importance.

Once the pharmacological effect and the absence of side and toxic effects are proven, the test substance goes on to the clinical trial phase. Clinical trials involve research conducted on humans to discover or confirm the clinical and pharmacological effects observed during preclinical research. Besides, they identify adverse events and study the process of absorption, distribution, biotransformation, and secretion of the test substance. In the present study, we list the phytochemicals from the four reviewed plants that stood out during pre-clinical research and reviewed the clinical studies involving these compounds in the current literature. Table 5 summarizes these clinical studies.


**Table 5.** Clinical trials with secondary metabolites of fruit plants belonging to the Brazilian cerrado.


**Table 5.** *Cont.*
