Hyphaene thebaica and Medemia argun are very important desert plants not only as sources of nutrients for human and animal nutrition, but also as potential sources of antioxidant and antimicrobial secondary metabolites agents such as polyphenolics including protoanthocyanidins, flavonoids and phenolics in addition to other classes of secondary metabolites such as alkaloids and saponins. The recently discovering biological activity of H. thebaica has increased its importance. Having very narrow ecological amplitude, M. argun has received very little attention from researchers. The description of M. argun as endangered species may also contributed to decreasing the number of studies on Medemia. The objective of this paper is to review the phytochemistry and biological activity of both H. thebaica and M. argun. The biological activity of both plants will be discussed and evaluated in terms of the content of secondary metabolites in their extracts. Till now M. argun has not been biologically exploited yet although it has diverse arrays from active secondary metabolites in different parts of the plant.
