Toxicity: Its assessment and remediation in important medicinal plants

Abstract

The use of plant-derived products as phytomedicines can be dated back to the time of ancient man. In recent years of advances, awareness regarding the importance of medicinal properties of plants and their crucial role in human health and benefits has grown to a greater extent. Phytochemicals are predominantly found in medicinal plants as organic and inorganic bioactive substances that not only protect plants from stress and damage but also show therapeutic effects against human diseases. These substances are synthesized in different plant parts as primary or secondary metabolism products. They are mainly classified under broad categories of carbohydrates, alkaloids, terpenoids, lipids, phenolic acids, and metabolites containing nitrogen. These phyto-substances (as drugs) can be used as a sedative, analgesic, cardiotonic, and anti-allergic and for prophylaxis as well. They also aid in boosting immunity during illness and merely show any side effect and contraindications. In the recent period, it has been proved that these phytomedicines are as effective as the other synthetic medicines and can serve as a panacea for many life-risking human diseases such as cancer, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer's, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and malaria. Medicinal plants used in traditional practices do not have valid experimental evidence in well-structured research that outweighs their side effects. In more recent times, several adverse effects have been observed. Many routine food items also contain some of the other compounds or substances that can be considered toxic, for example, alpha-gliadin synthesized by gluten present in wheat rye and oats, cyanogenic glucosides in various fruits, thiocyanates in Brassica crop plants, lectins in various pulses (soybean and red kidney beans), and alkaloids in Solanaceae family.