Plant Compounds with Antiophidic Activities, Their Discovery History, and Current and Proposed Applications

Abstract

Snakebite is a complex neglected health problem for which the best treatment is the – not always available – antivenom, posing a challenge to health care systems worldwide. It affects different countries and cultures which employ particular approaches for the treatment and expertise apart from the officially recommended. Ancient folk knowledge on the use of plants against snake-related accidents is well established, especially in Asia, where healers or specialists on ethnobotany propose plants for the treatment of the snake envenoming. Although folk medicine traditionally employed plants against snakebites, this is not well established in developed countries, in part due to competition with powerful pharmaceutical companies. Even so, numerous plants with antiophydic properties have been investigated, with a vast number yet to be explored. Scientists studying snake envenoming treatment over the past decades have proposed promising compounds such as coumestans from Eclipta sp. and triterpenes from Hemidesmus sp. and Combretum sp. The aim of this chapter is to review relevant publications on antiophydic plants, some with known active molecules already isolated and explored, yet with no intention of exhausting the subject.