review · Biomedicines
This review explores the therapeutic potential of medicinal plants and their phytoconstituents in addressing major global health challenges, including diabetes, cancer, infections, cardiovascular diseases, inflammation, and gastrointestinal disorders. Historically, plants have been a valuable source of bioactive compounds. The research focuses on 35 commonly reported plants, detailing their traditional uses, chemical composition, pharmacological properties, and specific mechanisms of action. Examples include cucurbitane triterpenoids for diabetes, capsaicin and curcumin for cancer, piperine for antimicrobial effects, quercetin for inflammation, ginsenosides for cardiovascular health, and quercitrin for gastrointestinal issues. These compounds operate via various molecular pathways, such as activating Glucose Transporter Type 4 or deactivating NF-κB. Further studies are necessary to fully investigate their clinical benefits and molecular mechanisms.
Many serious global health conditions lack effective treatments, leading to high mortality and morbidity. This research highlights the potential of medicinal plants, traditionally used for centuries, as a source of new therapeutic compounds. Understanding their mechanisms could lead to the development of novel, plant-derived medicines.
The abstract identifies numerous phytoconstituents with therapeutic potential for various diseases, suggesting a pathway for drug discovery and development. However, it explicitly calls for "further studies" to investigate "clinical therapeutic benefits" and "underlying molecular mechanisms." Therefore, this work represents early-stage research, providing foundational knowledge for potential future pharmaceutical applications, but does not indicate immediate commercialisation or near-market readiness.
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Conditions like diabetes mellitus (DM), cancer, infections, inflammation, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), and gastrointestinal (GI) disorders continue to have a major global impact on mortality and morbidity. Medicinal plants have been used since ancient times in ethnomedicine (e.g., Ayurveda, Unani, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and European Traditional Medicine) for the treatment of a wide range of disorders. Plants are a rich source of diverse phytoconstituents with antidiabetic, anticancer, antimicrobial, antihypertensive, antioxidant, antihyperlipidemic, cardioprotective, immunomodulatory, and/or anti-inflammatory activities. This review focuses on the 35 plants most commonly reported for the treatment of these major disorders, with a particular emphasis on their traditional uses, phytoconstituent contents, pharmacological properties, and modes of action. Active phytomolecules with therapeutic potential include cucurbitane triterpenoids, diosgenin, and limonoids (azadiradione and gedunin), which exhibit antidiabetic properties, with cucurbitane triterpenoids specifically activating Glucose Transporter Type 4 (GLUT4) translocation. Capsaicin and curcumin demonstrate anticancer activity by deactivating NF-κB and arresting the cell cycle in the G2 phase. Antimicrobial activities have been observed for piperine, reserpine, berberine, dictamnine, chelerythrine, and allitridin, with the latter two triggering bacterial cell lysis. Quercetin, catechin, and genistein exhibit anti-inflammatory properties, with genistein specifically suppressing CD8+ cytotoxic T cell function. Ginsenoside Rg1 and ginsenoside Rg3 demonstrate potential for treating cardiovascular diseases, with ginsenoside Rg1 activating PPARα promoter, and the PI3K/Akt pathway. In contrast, ternatin, tannins, and quercitrin exhibit potential in gastrointestinal disorders, with quercitrin regulating arachidonic acid metabolism by suppressing cyclooxygenase (COX) and lipoxygenase activity. Further studies are warranted to fully investigate the clinical therapeutic benefits of these plants and their phytoconstituents, as well as to elucidate their underlying molecular mechanisms of action.
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DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines13020454
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