In medicinal plant field ethnopharmacological knowledge aggrandizes legibility for prioritizing species selection for future research opportunities. Many plant species representing the genus Onosma have been documented to be important in communities world-wide as evidenced by the numerous records on traditional medicinal and ethno-botanical information. Various species of the genus are used in the traditional medicinal systems in Europe and Asian countries especially in India, China, Turky and Pakistan. The literature on the species distribution and their characterization was compiled from different regional floras, regional revisions and databases. The information related to traditional uses, pharmacological activities and phytochemistry was systematically collected from the scientific databases including reference books, SciFinder, Scopus, PubMed and Google Scholar. Absence of comprehensive literature review on genus Onosma species led to design present study and dig the recorded documents to comparatively gauge magnitude of studies on each of the Onosma species through an exhaustive bibliographic evaluation of scientifically studied species of genus Onosma that are also taxonomically identified and are valued as traditional medicinal remedy for diseases in their countries of origin. The study hinted about lack of scientific literature on most of the species. A comprehensive bibliographic review on the geographical distribution, identification, traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology and toxicology of the genus Onosma is attempted here to give insights into promising future drug discovery strategies.