Traditional Resources and Tools for Modern Drug Discovery : Ethnomedicine and Pharmacology

초록

Apocynaceae is the large flowering plant family that consists of various genera like Alstonia, Calotropis, Catharanthus, Cerbera, Holarrhena, Kopsia, Nerium, etc., that contain some very important phytochemicals that were reported to promote apoptosis and inhibit the microbes and attenuate the multidrug resistance. Apoptosis is programmed cell death that can interfere with various disease morphology, like apoptosis in cancerous tissue, and is useful for cancer treatments. Also blocked apoptosis could be one of the reasons for the cancer multidrug resistance. Several compounds like quercetin, oleandrin, kaempferol, isoquercetin, apigenin, and cardenolides were reported as apoptosis-promoting agent that increases the apoptotic rate, by mainly increasing the caspase activity and altering some other factors. Antimicrobial drug resistance was another global threat because these microbes cause some very fatal diseases like gonorrhea and tuberculosis. Bacteria are one of those that contribute the maximum percentage to the drug resistance due to the misuse and overuse of antibiotics; also fungi show multidrug resistance. Some phytoactive compounds from the Apocynaceae family were reported to attenuate the multidrug resistance by inhibiting the efflux pump that effluxes out the antimicrobial drug; also they increased the susceptibility of the antibiotics toward the resistance strains of the microbes. Some phytochemical was even found to inhibit the virus by blocking their replication and entry into the host. In this chapter, some important phytochemicals that promote apoptosis, show antimicrobial activity, and attenuate multidrug resistance are documented. These phytochemicals are being studied for their potential to inhibit antimicrobial drug resistance and promote apoptosis, which may help in treating various types of cancer. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2024.