author(s) : Faiza M. Hammouda, Husseiny A. H. Elgendy, Ibrahim A. El-Garf and Abdel-Fattah M. Rizk

The family has about 110 genera and approximately 2500 species, mainly humid tropics,some in subtropical, dry and temperate regions (Boulos, 2005). Also known as aroid, itcontains the most diverse and attractive species of the plant kingdom.
Although severalspecies are cultivated as ornamental plants all the year are recorded numerous cases ofpoisoning by species of the family.
The beauty, popularity, toxicity and economic importanceof some popular species of the Araceae species, belonging to the genera Dieffenbachia ,Colocasia, Philodendron, Anthurium and Caladium have been reviewed.
The toxicity ofsome of these plants is a reason to act with caution to grow them as ornamentals (Santos,2011).
The Araceae is mainly a tropical family, many members of which contain bioactivesubstances which are often either toxic or irritating.
Inflorescences frequently emit strongfragrances.
Flavonoids have been isolated from many species.

In addition, two groups ofcompounds of known bioactivity, alkylresorcinols and nitrogenous sugar analogues, havebeen sought in representative species from most of the genera in the family (Dring et al.,1995).
The family contains several species which are used as a food and/or feed.
The constituents of plants of the family Araceae include volatile and non-  volatilecomponents, monoterpenes, sesquiterpenes, triterpenes, phenylpropanes, flavonoids,quinonoids, alkaloids, etc.
Moreover, glucomannans and other polysaccharides have beenisolated from some species.
The systematic occurrence of sterols in latex of Araceae, subfamily Colocasioideae hasbeen studied by Fox and French (1988).
Free sterols were detected in latex of all New Worldspecies examined and were localized in approximately 1 μm terpenoid particles which areabundant and account for the white-opaque appearance of the latex.
No free sterols weredetected in latex of Old World genera examined, which are consistently clear to cloudy, andlack terpenoid particles.
The presence of free sterols as small particles is typical of NewWorld Colocasioideae with white latex. Thus, Old and New World groups of Colocasioideae could be based on stem vasculature, pollen, and leaf type (Fox and French, 1988).