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Graphical Abstract This review systematically summarizes the recent advances in AMPs development with respect to characteristics, structure-activity relationships, functions, antimicrobial mechanisms, expression regulation, and applications in food, medicine, and animals. The developments of peptidomimetics and AMPs/peptidomimetics-antibiotics hybrids as the next generation of antimicrobial agents are also introduced. The broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity and nonspecific physical membrane disruption mechanism of AMPs highlight their potential to be developed as potential alternatives to antibiotics.
Out of about 258,650 species of higher plants reported from the world; more than 10% are used to cure ailing communities. Beside many known drugs (e.g.tubocurarine, reserpine, aspirin and morphine etc) are discovered based on traditional knowledge. Majority of the people in Pakistan rely on medicinal plants to find treatment for their minor, even in some cases major diseases. Some wild plants are now being commonly used e.g. Ephedra, Artimisia, St. John’s wort,Hippophae beside some that have been domesticated e.g. Garlic, Ginseng and Cumin etc. There is a local market system (Pansara) specifically dealing with medicinal plants business in Pakistan and several plants are exported. Plants having active constituents are used to treat various ailments in both human and animal. In most instances, certain plant species are considered specific for a particular illness but occasionally they have mixed usage. Women, followed by children, are identified as the principal collectors of medicinal plants. Due to over-collection, several species have gone extinct in the Hindukush-Himalayan regions. Local collectors, vendors, herbal drug dealers and others are the ones who threaten the flora of Pakistan contribute (though unknowingly) to the extinction of some and bringing others to the brink of extinction. Though medicinal plants from wild are important source of income for local communities, but if not properly managed, this may lead to the destruction of habitat and in return extinction of species. There is therefore, a need to find ways to harvest medicinal plants sustainably from the wild, train local collectors (in proper collection techniques, train the people in growing medicinal plants, and remove some of the middlemen from the trading chain. In the present article, an effort was made to review the status of medicinal plants research in Pakistan. Key words: Medicinal plants of Pakistan, research and development, conservational issues, marketing, problems and prospects.
Triazole compounds containing three nitrogen atoms in the five-membered aromatic azole ring are readily able to bind with a variety of enzymes and receptors in biological system via diverse non-covalent interactions, and thus display versatile biological activities. The related researches in triazole-based derivatives as medicinal drugs have been an extremely active topic, and numerous excellent achievements have been acquired. Noticeably, a large number of triazole compounds as clinical drugs or candidates have been frequently employed for the treatment of various types of diseases, which have shown their large development value and wide potential as medicinal agents. This work systematically reviewed the recent researches and developments of the whole range of triazole compounds as medicinal drugs, including antifungal, anticancer, antibacterial, antitubercular, antiviral, anti-inflammatory and analgesic, anticonvulsant, antiparasitic, antidiabetic, anti-obesitic, antihistaminic, anti-neuropathic, antihypertensive as well as other biological activities. The perspectives of the foreseeable future in the research and development of triazole-based compounds as medicinal drugs are also presented. It is hoped that this review will serve as a stimulant for new thoughts in the quest for rational designs of more active and less toxic triazole medicinal drugs.
This review summarizes research carried out on Jamaican medicinal plants at the Faculty of Pure and Applied Science, The University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, Jamaica, between 1948 and 2001. The plants identified as being medicinal are listed along with their folk use and a summary of the scientific research done at UWI leading to the identification of natural products (NPs) and determination of their bioactivity. Natural product research on Jamaican medicinal plants began with the inception of UWI in 1948, leading to many postgraduate degrees being awarded (22 MPhil and 31 PhD). At least 334 plant species growing in Jamaica have been identified as having medicinal qualities, 193 of these have been tested for their bioactivity. Crude extracts from 80 of these plants have reasonable bioactivity and natural products (NP) have been identified from 44 plants. At least 29 of these NPs were found to be bioactive. Only 31 of the plants tested at UWI are endemic to Jamaica. Of these 23% were bioactive, as compared to 11% of the non-endemics. Based on these results, patents have been obtained and drugs have been developed. This review represents the first attempt to gather this information together in one place.
The north of Peru represents the "Health Axis" of the Central Andes, with the roots of traditional practices going back to the Cupisnique culture (1000 BC). During a decade of research semi-structured interviews of healers, collectors and sellers of medicinal plants were conducted. Bioassays were carried out to evaluate the effectiveness and toxicity of the plants found. The majority (83%) of the 510 species used were native to Peru. 50% of the plants used in the colonial era disappeared from the pharmacopoeia. In the markets, vendors were grouped: common and exotic plants, plants for common diseases, plants only used by healers, and plants with magical purposes. About 974 preparations with up to 29 ingredients treated 164 conditions. Nearly 65% of the medicinal flora are applied in mixtures. Antibacterial activity was confirmed in most plants used for infections. 24% aqueous extract and 76% ethanol extracts showed toxicity. Traditional methods of preparation take this into account when choosing the appropriate solvent for the preparation of a remedy. The growing demand did not increase the significant cultivation of medicinal plants. The majority represent plants collected in nature, causing doubts about the sustainability of trade.The focus of ethnobotanical studies and the participation of local stakeholders have changed a lot in recent decades. From the scientific point of view, the research has gone from simple inventories for example of mainly medicinal plants to detailed quantitative studies, often focused on all useful plants. However, the most important thing is that the research has finally moved away from colonial style research to modern ethnobotany based on the principles of the Nagoya Protocol. This is of great importance for the ethnobiological community. However, these changes have not been the same in all Latin American countries, and there are large regional differences.The objective of this publication is to provide examples of twenty-five years of global research, describing the change of attitude and methodology during that time, highlighting the increasing role of local actors in ethnobotanical research and contributing ideas for the future development of the discipline.With this special issue of Ethnobotany Research and Applications we try to bring 20 years of research in Northern Peru to a wider audience.
Natural products have played a critical role in medicine due to their ability to bind and modulate cellular targets involved in disease. Medicinal plants hold a variety of bioactive scaffolds for the treatment of multiple disorders. The less adverse effects, affordability, and easy accessibility highlight their potential in traditional remedies. Identifying pharmacological targets from active ingredients of medicinal plants has become a hot topic for biomedical research to generate innovative therapies. By developing an unprecedented opportunity for the systematic investigation of traditional medicines, network pharmacology is evolving as a systematic paradigm and becoming a frontier research field of drug discovery and development. The advancement of network pharmacology has opened up new avenues for understanding the complex bioactive components found in various medicinal plants. This study is attributed to a comprehensive summary of network pharmacology based on current research, highlighting various active ingredients, related techniques/tools/databases, and drug discovery and development applications. Moreover, this study would serve as a protocol for discovering novel compounds to explore the full range of biological potential of traditionally used plants. We have attempted to cover this vast topic in the review form. We hope it will serve as a significant pioneer for researchers working with medicinal plants by employing network pharmacology approaches.
BACKGROUND: The EC Regulation for Organic Farming states that organic livestock should be treated preferably with phytotherapeutic products. In spite of the high importance of organic livestock in Europe, primarily ruminants, today almost no phytotherapeutic product is registered for livestock. Also, information regarding veterinary phytotherapy is rare. The aim of this paper is to find approaches to cope with health problems of organic ruminants in Europe on the basis of findings from the European ethnoveterinary medicine (EuEVM). METHODS: A systematic review of ethno-biomedicinal papers was conducted with the aid of the Scopus database, and 75 papers, from European countries were analyzed regarding ethnoveterinary information. RESULTS: A total of 590 plant species referring to 102 different plant families are reported to be used for animal treatment, with Asteraceae, Fabaceae and Lamiaceae being the most important families. The traditional use of some plant species (e.g. mallow, chamomile, wormwood) corresponds with findings from recent scientific literature. The large number of less studied plant species, such as white lupin as an antiparasitic herb, and Helleborus spp. as potential immunostimulatory agent, opens an interesting field for future research. CONCLUSIONS: In general, EuEVM provides interesting treatment approaches for gastrointestinal and dermatological disorders as well as parasitosis. Findings regarding disorders of female genital or respiratory tract are less consistent. Nevertheless, EuEVM offers a solid basis for stimulating research in veterinary phytotherapy in Europe with a perspective to solve animal health problems in organic or even nonorganic ruminant production.
In recent decades, the polysaccharides from the medicinal plants have attracted a lot of attention due to their significant bioactivities, such as anti-tumor activity, antioxidant activity, anticoagulant activity, antidiabetic activity, radioprotection effect, anti-viral activity, hypolipidemic and immunomodulatory activities, which make them suitable for medicinal applications. Previous studies have also shown that medicinal plant polysaccharides are non-toxic and show no side effects. Based on these encouraging observations, most researches have been focusing on the isolation and identification of polysaccharides, as well as their bioactivities. A large number of bioactive polysaccharides with different structural features and biological effects from medicinal plants have been purified and characterized. This review provides a comprehensive summary of the most recent developments in physiochemical, structural features and biological activities of bioactive polysaccharides from a number of important medicinal plants, such as polysaccharides from Astragalus membranaceus, Dendrobium plants, Bupleurum, Cactus fruits, Acanthopanax senticosus, Angelica sinensis (Oliv.) Diels, Aloe barbadensis Miller, and Dimocarpus longan Lour. Moreover, the paper has also been focused on the applications of bioactive polysaccharides for medicinal applications. Recent studies have provided evidence that polysaccharides from medicinal plants can play a vital role in bioactivities. The contents and data will serve as a useful reference material for further investigation, production, and application of these polysaccharides in functional foods and therapeutic agents.
Neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss) is perhaps the most useful traditional medicinal plant in India. Each part of the neem tree has some medicinal property and is thus commercially exploitable. During the last five decades, apart from the chemistry of the neem compounds, considerable progress has been achieved regarding the biological activity and medicinal applications of neem. It is now considered as a valuable source of unique natural products for development of medicines against various diseases and also for the development of industrial products. This review gives a bird’s eye view mainly on the biological activities of some of the neem compounds isolated, pharmacological actions of the neem extracts, clinical studies and plausible medicinal applications of neem along with their safety evaluation. MEDICINAL plants are part and parcel of human society to combat diseases, from the dawn of civilization. Azadirachta indica A. Juss (syn. Melia azadirachta) is well known in India and its neighbouring countries for more than 2000 years as one of the most versatile medicinal plants having a wide spectrum of biological activity. A. indica A. Juss and M. azedarach are two closely related species of Meliaceae. The former is popularly known as Indian neem (margosa tree) or Indian lilac, and the latter as the Persian lilac. Neem is an evergreen tree, cultivated in various parts of the Indian subcontinent. Every part of the tree has been used as traditional medicine for household remedy against various human ailments, from antiquity 1–6 . Neem has been extensively used in ayurveda, unani and homoeopathic medicine and has become a cynosure of modern medicine. The sanskrit name of the neem tree is ‘Arishtha’ meaning ‘reliever of sickness’ and hence is considered as ‘Sarbaroganib arini’. The tree is still regarded as ‘village dispensary’ in India. The importance of the neem tree has been recognized by the US National Academy of Sciences, which published a report in 1992 entitled ‘Neem – a tree for solving global problems’. The advancement of neem research has earlier been documented 7,8
Human societies have been in close contact with their environments since the beginning of their formation and used the ingredients of the environment to obtain food and medicine. Awareness and application of plants to prepare food and medicine have been realized through trial and error, and gradually human became able to meet his needs from his surroundings. Information about medicinal plants has long been transmitted gradually and from generation to generation, a human knowledge has gradually become complete with the formation of civilizations and the provision of more facilities. Medicinal plants are used as a medical resource in almost all cultures. Ensuring the safety, quality and effectiveness of medicinal plants and herbal drugs very recently became a key issue in industrialized and developing countries. By standardizing and evaluating the health of active plant-derived compounds, herbal drugs can help the emergence of a new era of the healthcare system to treat human diseases in the future. Awareness of traditional knowledge and medicinal plants can play a key role in the exploitation and discovery of natural plant resources. In order to maintain this knowledge, comprehensive approach and collaboration are needed to maintain historical records on medicinal plants and use these resources in favour of human beings, before they are destroyed forever. Therefore, this review was conducted to investigate and describe the process of using medicinal plants throughout history. This review focuses on the recent various important challenges in quality evaluation of medicinal plants in the authenticity, efficacy, toxicity and consistency.
BACKGROUND: The scoping review has become an increasingly popular approach for synthesizing research evidence. It is a relatively new approach for which a universal study definition or definitive procedure has not been established. The purpose of this scoping review was to provide an overview of scoping reviews in the literature. METHODS: A scoping review was conducted using the Arksey and O'Malley framework. A search was conducted in four bibliographic databases and the gray literature to identify scoping review studies. Review selection and characterization were performed by two independent reviewers using pretested forms. RESULTS: The search identified 344 scoping reviews published from 1999 to October 2012. The reviews varied in terms of purpose, methodology, and detail of reporting. Nearly three-quarter of reviews (74.1%) addressed a health topic. Study completion times varied from 2 weeks to 20 months, and 51% utilized a published methodological framework. Quality assessment of included studies was infrequently performed (22.38%). CONCLUSIONS: Scoping reviews are a relatively new but increasingly common approach for mapping broad topics. Because of variability in their conduct, there is a need for their methodological standardization to ensure the utility and strength of evidence.
BACKGROUND: Traditional medicine has remained as the most affordable and easily accessible source of treatment in the primary healthcare system of resource poor communities in Zimbabwe. The local people have a long history of traditional plant usage for medicinal purposes. Despite the increasing acceptance of traditional medicine in Zimbabwe, this rich indigenous knowledge is not adequately documented. Documentation of plants used as traditional medicines is needed so that the knowledge can be preserved and the utilized plants conserved and used sustainably. The primary objective of this paper is to summarize information on traditional uses of medicinal plants in south-central Zimbabwe, identifying research gaps and suggesting perspectives for future research. METHODS: This study is based on a review of the literature published in scientific journals, books, reports from national, regional and international organizations, theses, conference papers and other grey materials. RESULTS: A total of 93 medicinal plant species representing 41 families and 77 genera are used in south-central Zimbabwe. These plant species are used to treat 18 diseases and disorder categories, with the highest number of species used for gastro-intestinal disorders, followed by sexually transmitted infections, cold, cough and sore throat and gynaecological problems. Shrubs and trees (38% each) were the primary sources of medicinal plants, followed by herbs (21%) and climbers (3%). The therapeutic claims made on medicinal plants documented in south-central Zimbabwe are well supported by literature, with 82.8% of the plant species having similar applications in other regions of Zimbabwe as well as other parts of the world and 89.2% having documented biological and pharmacological properties. CONCLUSION: This study illustrates the importance of traditional medicines in the treatment and management of human diseases and ailments in south-central Zimbabwe. Traditional medicines still play an important role in meeting basic health care of local communities in Zimbabwe.
Medical plants play an important role in the management of diabetes mellitus especially in developing countries where resources are meager. This review presents the profiles of plants with hypoglycaemic properties, reported in the literature from 1990 to 2000. The profiles presented include information about the scientific name, family, methodology used, the degree of hypoglycaemic activity and the active agents. The large number of plants described in this review (176 species belonging to 84 families) clearly demonstrated the importance of herbal plants in the treatment of diabetes. It also shows the effort to isolate new potential antidiabetic agents. The plant families, including the species (sp), most studied for their confirmed hypoglycaemic effects include: Leguminoseae (11 sp), Lamiaceae (7 sp), Liliaceae (8 sp), Cucurbitaceae (7 sp), Asteraceae (6 sp), Moraceae (6 sp), Rosaceae (6 sp), Euphorbiaceae (5 sp) and Araliaceae (5 sp). The most studied species are: Citrullus colocynthis (Opuntia streptacantha Lem. (Cactaceae), Trigonella foenum greacum L. (Leguminosea), Momordica charantia L. (Cucurbitaceae), Ficus bengalensis L. (Moraceae), Polygala senega L. (Polygalaceae), and Gymnema sylvestre R. (Asclepiadaceae). Many studies have confirmed the benefits of medicinal plants with hypoglycaemic effects in the management of diabetes mellitus. The effects of these plants may delay the development of diabetic complications and correct the metabolic abnormalities. Moreover, during the past few years some of the new bioactive drugs isolated from hypoglycaemic plants showed antidiabetic activity with more efficacy than oral hypoglycaemic agents used in clinical therapy. (Int J Diabetes Metab 14: 1-25, 2006)
The extraordinary potential of fluorine-containing biologically relevant molecules in biology, medicinal chemistry, and medical applications has been recognized by researchers who are not in the traditional fluorine chemistry field, and thus a new wave of fluorine chemistry is expanding its biomedical frontiers. This book contains comprehensive reviews on cutting-edge developments and future prospects of fluorine in bioorganic and medicinal chemistry. It is essential for researchers who want to take advantage of the use of fluorine in biomedical research, from rational drug design, theory and
The increasing incidence of drug- resistant pathogens raises an urgent need to identify and isolate new bioactive compounds from medicinal plants using standardized modern analytical procedures. Medicinal plant-derived compounds could provide novel straightforward approaches against pathogenic bacteria. This review explores the antimicrobial activity of plant-derived components, their possible mechanisms of action, as well as their chemical potential. The focus is put on the current challenges and future perspectives surrounding medicinal plants antimicrobial activity. There are some inherent challenges regarding medicinal plant extracts and their antimicrobial efficacy. Appropriate and optimized extraction methodology plant species dependent leads to upgraded and selective extracted compounds. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests for the determination of the antimicrobial activity of plant extracts may show variations in obtained results. Moreover, there are several difficulties and problems that need to be overcome for the development of new antimicrobials from plant extracts, while efforts have been made to enhance the antimicrobial activity of chemical compounds. Research on the mechanisms of action, interplay with other substances, and the pharmacokinetic and/or pharmacodynamic profile of the medicinal plant extracts should be given high priority to characterize them as potential antimicrobial agents.
Endophytic fungi or endophytes exist widely inside the healthy tissues of living plants, and are important components of plant micro-ecosystems. Over the long period of evolution, some co-existing endophytes and their host plants have established a special relationship with one and another, which can significantly influence the formation of metabolic products in plants, then affect quality and quantity of crude drugs derived from medicinal plants. This paper will focus on the increasing knowledge of relationships between endophytic fungi and medicinal plants through reviewing of published research data obtained from the last 30 years. The analytical results indicate that the distribution and population structure of endophytes can be considerably affected by factors, such as the genetic background, age, and environmental conditions of their hosts. On the other hand, the endophytic fungi can also confer profound impacts on their host plants by enhancing their growth, increasing their fitness, strengthening their tolerances to abiotic and biotic stresses, and promoting their accumulation of secondary metabolites. All the changes are very important for the production of bioactive components in their hosts. Hence, it is essential to understand such relationships between endophytic fungi and their host medicinal plants. Such knowledge can be well exploited and applied for the production of better and more drugs from medicinal plants.
Several hundred plant and herb species that have potential as novel antiviral agents have been studied, with surprisingly little overlap. A wide variety of active phytochemicals, including the flavonoids, terpenoids, lignans, sulphides, polyphenolics, coumarins, saponins, furyl compounds, alkaloids, polyines, thiophenes, proteins and peptides have been identified. Some volatile essential oils of commonly used culinary herbs, spices and herbal teas have also exhibited a high level of antiviral activity. However, given the few classes of compounds investigated, most of the pharmacopoeia of compounds in medicinal plants with antiviral activity is still not known. Several of these phytochemicals have complementary and overlapping mechanisms of action, including antiviral effects by either inhibiting the formation of viral DNA or RNA or inhibiting the activity of viral reproduction. Assay methods to determine antiviral activity include multiple-arm trials, randomized crossover studies, and more compromised designs such as nonrandomized crossovers and pre- and post-treatment analyses. Methods are needed to link antiviral efficacy/potency- and laboratory-based research. Nevertheless, the relative success achieved recently using medicinal plant/herb extracts of various species that are capable of acting therapeutically in various viral infections has raised optimism about the future of phyto-antiviral agents. As this review illustrates, there are innumerable potentially useful medicinal plants and herbs waiting to be evaluated and exploited for therapeutic applications against genetically and functionally diverse viruses families such as Retroviridae, Hepadnaviridae and Herpesviridae
Heterocyclic compounds have gained a lot of attention because of their numerous significant medical and biological uses. Research interest on heterocyclic compounds is rapidly increasing due to the extensive synthetic study and functional utility. They are found in more than 90% of novel drugs, and span the gap between biology and chemistry, where so much scientific discovery and application occurs. Heterocycles also play a role in different fields, inclusive of medicinal chemistry, biochemistry, and others. Pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and veterinary items are the main applications of heterocyclic compounds. In our review, we cover the majority of bio-active heterocycles that have recently been synthesized and introduced a new phase of possible antifungal, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, antiviral, antioxidant, anticonvulsant, anthelmintics, anthelmintic antipyretics, anti-allergic, anti-histamine, herbicidal, anticancer, antihypertensive and anti-leprosy therapeutics.
Alkaloids, tannins, saponins, steroid, terpenoid, flavonoids, phlobatannin and cardic glycoside distribution in ten medicinal plants belonging to different families were assessed and compared. The medicinal plants investigated were Cleome nutidosperma, Emilia coccinea, Euphorbia heterophylla, Physalis angulata, Richardia bransitensis, Scopania dulcis, Sida acuta, Spigelia anthelmia, Stachytarpheta cayennensis and Tridax procumbens. All the plants were found to contain alkaloids, tannins and flavonoids except for the absence of tannins in S. acuta and flavonoids in S. cayennsis respectively. The significance of the plants in traditional medicine and the importance of the distribution of these chemical constituents were discussed with respect to the role of these plants in ethnomedicine in Nigeria. Key words: Medicinal plants, ethnomedicine, phytochemical constituents.