Abstract
Plants are a valuable source of pharmacologically important compounds since these are traditionally important in medicinal systems. Medicinal plant-based ancient wisdom could serve as a powerful tool to facilitate focused research on natural compounds for the drug discovery process. Medicinal plants are more important sources for drug discovery, specifically lead molecules as these offer several advantages over the synthetic molecules. Since in post genomic era, molecular targets for most diseases are known, conventional bioscreening strategies for medicinal plants are not sufficient to fulfill the present demand. It makes the role of medicinal plants more significant than ever before. The rich heritage of Indian medicinal plants can be explored utilizing various computational approaches for bioprospecting in the post-genomic era. In this review, the authors explore how Indian medicinal plant legacy can be utilized in post-genomic era utilizing the computational, bioinformatics, chemo-informatics, genomics and systems biology approaches. This approach shall make possible the systematic analysis integrating traditional and modern data in order to validate medicinal plant based knowledge.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Balunas MJ, Kinghorn AD (2005) Drug discovery from medicinal plants. Life Sci 78:431–441
Vaidya ADB, Devasagayam TPA (2007) Current status of herbal drugs in India: an overview. J Clin Biochem Nutr 41:1–11
Hasan SZ, Misra V, Singh S, Arora G, Sharma S et al (2009) Current status of herbal drugs and their future perspectives. Biol Forum-An Int J 1:12–17
Mandal S, Moudgil M, Mandal SK (2009) Rational drug design. Eur J Pharmacol 625:90–100
Rout SP, Choudary KA, Kar DM, Das L, Jain A (2009) Plants in traditional medicinal system—future source of new drugs. Int J Pharm Pharm Sci 1:1–23
Farnsworth NR, Akerele O, Bingel AS, Soejarto DD, Guo Z (1985) Medicinal plants in therapy. Bull World Health Organ 63:965–981
Kim S, Park M, Yeom SI, Kim YM, Lee JM, Lee HA, Seo E, Choi J, Cheong K, Kim KT et al (2014) Genome sequence of the hot pepper provides insights into the evolution of pungency in Capsicum species. Nat Genet 46:270–278
Singh DB, Dwivedi S (2016) Structural insight into binding mode of inhibitor with SAHH of plasmodium and human: interaction of curcumin with anti-malarial drug targets. J ChemBiol 9:107–120
Kingston DGI (2011) Modern natural products drug discovery and its relevance to biodi-versity conservation. J Nat Prod 74:496–511
Stierle A, Strobel G, Stierle D, Grothaus P, Bignami G (1995) The search for a taxol- producing microorganism among the endophytic fungi of the Pacific yew, Taxus brevifolia. J Nat Prod 58:1315–1324
Katiyar C, Gupta A, Kanjilal S, Katiyar S (2012) Drug discovery from plant sources: an integrated approach. Ayu 33:10–19
Mangal M, Sagar P, Singh H, Raghava GP, Agarwal SM (2013) NPACT: naturally occurring plant-based anti-cancer compound-activity-target database. Nucleic Acids Res 41(Database issue):D1124–D1129
Lagunin AA, Goel RK, Gawande DY, Pahwa P, Gloriozova TA, Dmitriev AV, IvanovSM Rudik AV, Konova VI, Pogodin PV, Druzhilovsky DS, Poroikov VV (2014) Chemo- and bioinformatics resources for in silico drug discovery from medicinal plants beyond their traditional use: a critical review. Nat Prod Rep 31:1585–1611
Fabricant DS, Farnsworth NR (2001) The value of plants used in traditional medicine for drug discovery. Environ Health Perspect 109(Suppl 1):69–75
Brower V (2008) Back to nature: extinction of medicinal plants threatens drug discovery. J Natl Cancer Inst 100:838–839
Toubro S, Astrup AV, Breum L, Quaade F (1993) Safety and efficacy of long-term treatment with ephedrine, caffeine and an ephedrine/caffeine mixture. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord Suppl 1:S69–72
Féher J, Lengyel G (2012) Silymarin in the prevention and treatment of liver diseases and primary liver cancer. Curr Pharm Biotechnol 13(1):210–217
Butler MS, Robertson AA, Cooper MA (2014) Natural product and natural product derived drugs in clinical trials. Nat Prod Rep 11:1612–1661
Kluepfel D, Bagli J, Baker H, Charest MP, Kudelski A (1972) Myriocin, a new antifungal antibiotic from Myriococcum albomyces. J Antibiot (Tokyo) 25:109–115
Alchin DR (2014) Ingenol mebutate: a succinct review of a succinct therapy. Dermatol Ther 4:157–164
Choi HR, Nam KM, Lee HS, Yang SH, Kim YS, Lee J, Date A, Toyama K, Park KC (2016) Phlorizin, an active ingredient of Eleutherococcus senticosus, increases proliferative potential of keratinocytes with inhibition of MiR135b and increased expression of type IV collagen. Oxid Med Cell Longev. https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/3859721
Lopus M, Oroudjev E, Wilson L, Wilhelm S, Widdison W, Chari R, Jordan MA (2010) Maytansine and cellular metabolites of antibody-maytansinoid conjugates strongly suppress microtubule dynamics by binding to microtubules. Mol Cancer Ther 9:2689–2699
Alonso-Álvarez S, Pardal E, Sánchez-Nieto D, Navarro M, Caballero MD, Mateos MV, Martín A (2017) Plitidepsin: design, development, and potential place in therapy. Drug Des Dev Ther 11:253–264
Siddiqui AA, Iram F, Siddiqui S, Sahu K (2014) Role of natural products in drug discovery process. Int J Drug Dev Res 6:172–204
Joseph B, Jini D (2013) Antidiabetic effects of Momordica charantia (bitter melon) and its medicinal potency. Asian Pac J Trop Dis 3:93–102
Kim SY, Benowitz NL (1990) Poisoning due to class IA antiarrhythmic drugs. Quinidine, procainamide and disopyramide. Drug Saf 5:393–420
Devkar ST, Kandhare AD, Sloley BD, Jagtap SD, Lin J, Tam YK, Hegde MV (2015) Evaluation of the bioavailability of major withanolides of Withania somnifera using an in vitro absorption model system. J Adv Pharm Technol Res 6:159–164
Ekor M (2013) The growing use of herbal medicines: issues relating to adverse reactions and challenges in monitoring safety. Front Pharmacol 4:1–10
Shaw D, Graeme L, Pierre D, Elizabeth W, Kelvin C (2012) Pharmacovigilance of herbal medicine. J Ethnopharmacol 140:513–518
Neergheen-Bhujun VS (2013) Underestimating the toxicological challenges associated with the use of herbal medicinal products in developing countries. Biomed Res Int. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/804086
Dhyani A (2015) Critically endangered Indian medicinal plants. Heritage Amruth 11:42–45
Damle M (2014) Glycyrrhiza glabra (Liquorice)—a potent medicinal herb. Int J Herbal Med 2:132–136
Kanetkar P, Singhal R, Kamat M (2007) Gymnema sylvestre: a memoir. J Clin Biochem Nutr 41:77–81
Zahara K, Tabassum S, Sabir S, Arshad M, Qureshi R, Amjad MS, Chaudhari SK (2014) A review of therapeutic potential of Saussurea lappa-An endangered plant from Himalaya. Asian Pac J Trop Med 7S1:S60–69
Sharma S, Thokchom R (2014) A review on endangered medicinal plants of India and their conservation. J. Crop Weed 10:205–218
Rahman MA, Islam MS (2015) Alpinia calcarata Roscoe: a potential phytopharmacological source of natural medicine. Pharmacogn Rev 9:55–62
Lampariello LR, Cortelazzo A, Guerranti R, Sticozzi C, Valacchi G (2012) The magic velvet bean of Mucuna pruriens. J Tradit Complement Med 2:331–339
Ahlemeyer B, Krieglstein J (2003) Pharmacological studies supporting the therapeutic use of Ginkgo biloba extract for Alzheimer’s disease. Pharmacopsychiatry 36(Suppl 1):S8–14
Radhika LG, Meena CV, Peter S, Rajesh KS, Rosamma MP (2011) Phytochemical and antimicrobial study of Oroxylum indicum. Anc Sci Life 30:114–120
Itokawa H, Morris-Natschke SL, Akiyama T, Lee KH (2008) Plant-derived natural product research aimed at new drug discovery. J Nat Med 62:263–280
Acknowledgement
All the authors wish to express their grateful thanks to their respective institutions for the facilities extended to them which made it possible to write this review.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest to publish this manuscript.
Additional information
Significance statement This review provides a basic discussion platform for integration of different modern biological, chemical and computational techniques of Genomics, Proteomics and Systems biology to reduce the cost and time for drug discovery projects.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Singh, S., Singh, D.B., Singh, S. et al. Exploring Medicinal Plant Legacy for Drug Discovery in Post-genomic Era. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., India, Sect. B Biol. Sci. 89, 1141–1151 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40011-018-1013-x
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40011-018-1013-x