Ilex, or holly, is a genus of 400 to 600 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. The species are evergreen and deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers from tropics to temperate zones worldwide. Ilex is a genus belonging to the family Aquifoliaceae, native of Afro-Eurasia, Australia and the Americas, established by Carl Linnaeus. It has over 300 species in the subtropical regions of both hemispheres.

Ilex was also once among the traditional woods for Great Highland bagpipes before tastes turned to imported dense tropical woods such as cocuswood, ebony, and African blackwood.Two new triterpenes, ilexolic acid A and B, and seven new saponins, ilexosides XXXIII–XXXIX, together with the known saponin rotungenoside were isolated from the fresh leaves of Ilexrotunda, and their structures elucidated on the basis of chemical and physicochemical evidence.