Plant metabolites as new leads to drug discovery

Abstract

Natural products and their related compounds have been dominating as therapeutic agents for ages. Among them, numerous plant metabolites have made their way as drugs or drug precursors, thereby making them a "biosynthetic laboratory." These phytochemical compounds extracted from different sources serve a myriad of physiological effects, eventually giving them the therapeutic properties we seek. The preliminary studies on any novel plant-based drug compounds involve different approaches like traditional, random, ethnopharmacology, and zoo-pharmacognosy. Recent advancements in genomics and proteomics have also helped us to understand various proteins targeted by plant metabolites. Despite of all the setbacks in natural drug application, copious phytomedicines have already made their way into clinical trials for various diseases. This chapter attempts to elucidate several plant metabolites as drug molecules with a focus on their screening, based on druglikeness features and properties. This integrated approach would save cost and time and in parallel enhance the rate of a successful drug discovery.