Medicinal plants

About: Medicinal plants is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3816 publications have been published within this topic receiving 108681 citations. The topic is also known as: medicinal herbs & medicinal plants.

Evaluation of the Anti-Diabetic Activity of Some Common Herbs and Spices: Providing New Insights with Inverse Virtual Screening.

Abstract: Culinary herbs and spices are widely used as a traditional medicine in the treatment of diabetes and its complications, and there are several scientific studies in the literature supporting the use of these medicinal plants. However, there is often a lack of knowledge on the bioactive compounds of these herbs and spices and their mechanisms of action. The aim of this study was to use inverse virtual screening to provide insights into the bioactive compounds of common herbs and spices, and their potential molecular mechanisms of action in the treatment of diabetes. In this study, a library of over 2300 compounds derived from 30 common herbs and spices were screened in silico with the DIA-DB web server against 18 known diabetes drug targets. Over 900 compounds from the herbs and spices library were observed to have potential anti-diabetic activity and liquorice, hops, fennel, rosemary, and fenugreek were observed to be particularly enriched with potential anti-diabetic compounds. A large percentage of the compounds were observed to be potential polypharmacological agents regulating three or more anti-diabetic drug targets and included compounds such as achillin B from yarrow, asparasaponin I from fenugreek, bisdemethoxycurcumin from turmeric, carlinoside from lemongrass, cinnamtannin B1 from cinnamon, crocin from saffron and glabridin from liquorice. The major targets identified for the herbs and spices compounds were dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP4), intestinal maltase-glucoamylase (MGAM), liver receptor homolog-1 (NR5A2), pancreatic alpha-amylase (AM2A), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARA), protein tyrosine phosphatase non-receptor type 9 (PTPN9), and retinol binding protein-4 (RBP4) with over 250 compounds observed to be potential inhibitors of these particular protein targets. Only bay leaves, liquorice and thyme were found to contain compounds that could potentially regulate all 18 protein targets followed by black pepper, cumin, dill, hops and marjoram with 17 protein targets. In most cases more than one compound within a given plant could potentially regulate a particular protein target. It was observed that through this multi-compound-multi target regulation of these specific protein targets that the major anti-diabetic effects of reduced hyperglycemia and hyperlipidemia of the herbs and spices could be explained. The results of this study, taken together with the known scientific literature, indicated that the anti-diabetic potential of common culinary herbs and spices was the result of the collective action of more than one bioactive compound regulating and restoring several dysregulated and interconnected diabetic biological processes.

Evaluation of anti-leishmanial activity of selected Indian plants known to have antimicrobial properties

Abstract: The severe toxicity, exorbitant cost and the emerging resistance of Leishmania spp. against most of the currently used drugs led to the urgent need for exploiting our traditional Ayurvedic knowledge to treat visceral leishmaniasis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the in vitro anti-leishmanial activity of various extracts from ten traditionally used Indian medicinal plants. The methanolic extract from only two plants, Withania somnifera Dunal (ashwagandha) and Allium sativum Linn. (garlic), showed appreciable activity against Leishmania donovani. Further active compounds from these two plants were isolated and purified based on bioactivity-guided fractionation. HPLC-purified fraction A6 of ashwagandha and G3 of garlic showed consistently high activity with 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 12.5 ± 4 and 18.6 ± 3 μg/ml against promastigotes whereas IC50 of 9.5 ± 3 and 13.5 ± 2 μg/ml against amastigote form, respectively. The fraction A6 of ashwagandha was identified as withaferin A while fraction G3 of garlic is yet to be identified, and the work is in progress. Cytotoxic effects of the promising fractions and compounds were further evaluated in the murine macrophage (J774G8) model and were found to be safe. These compounds showed negligible cytotoxicity against J774G8 macrophages. The results indicate that fraction A6 of ashwagandha and fraction G3 of garlic might be potential sources of new anti-leishmanial compounds. The in vivo efficacy study and further optimization of these active compounds are in progress.

Assessment of effect of hydroalcoholic and decoction methods on extraction of antioxidants from selected Indian medicinal plants

Abstract: Objective To assess the effects of extraction methods on antioxidant activities of selected Indian medicinal flora.