Since primitive times, herbs have been extensively used in conventional remedies for boosting cognitive impairment and age-associated memory loss. It is mentioned that medicinal plants have a variety of dynamic components, and they have become a prominent choice for synthetic medications for the care of cognitive and associated disorders. Herbal remedies have played a major role in the progression of medicine, and many advanced drugs have already been developed. Many studies have endorsed practicing herbal remedies with phytoconstituents, for healing Alzheimer’s disease (AD). All the information in this article was collated from selected research papers from online scientific databases, such as PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus. The aim of this article is to convey the potential of herbal remedies for the prospect management of Alzheimer’s and related diseases. Herbal remedies may be useful in the discovery and advancement of drugs, thus extending new leads for neurodegenerative diseases such as AD. Nanocarriers play a significant role in delivering herbal medicaments to a specific target. Therefore, many drugs have been described for the management of age-linked complaints such as dementia, AD, and the like. Several phytochemicals are capable of managing AD, but their therapeutic claims are restricted due to their lower solubility and metabolism. These limitations of natural therapeutics can be overcome by using a targeted nanocarrier system. This article will provide the primitive remedies as well as the development of herbal remedies for AD management.
Background
Glycyrrhiza glabra
L. (
G. glabra
) commonly known as liquorice is one of the highly exploited and utilized medicinal plant of the world. Since ancient times liquorice is considered as an auspicious and valuable traditional medicine across the world for treatment of various ailments.
Method
Several electronic online scientific databases such as Science Direct, PubMed, Scopus, Scifinder, Google Scholar, online books and reports were assessed for collecting information. All the collected information was classified into different sections to meet the objective of the paper.
Results
The electronic database search yielded 3908 articles from different countries. Out of them one ninety-eight articles published between 1956 and 2021 were included, corresponding to all detailed review on
G. glabra
and research on anti-inflammatories, antivirals and immunomodulatory through pre-clinical and clinical models. From all selective area of studies on
G. glabra
and its bioactive components it was established (including molecular mechanisms) as a suitable remedy as per the current requirement of pandemic situation arise through respiratory tract infection.
Conclusion
Different relevant studies have been thoroughly reviewed to gain an insight on utility of liquorice and its bioactive constituents for several pharmacological emphasizing anti-inflammatories, antivirals and immunomodulatory effects with special emphasized for prevention and treatment of COVID-19 infection with possible mechanism of action at molecular level. Proposed directions for future research are also outlined to encourage researchers to find out various mechanistic targets and useful value added products of liquorice in future investigations.
Aim and Objective:
At present, the world is facing a global pandemic threat of SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 and till date, there
are no clinically approved vaccines or antiviral drugs available for the treatment of coronavirus infections. Studies conducted in China recommended
the use of liquorice (Glycyrrhiza species), an integral medicinal herb of traditional Chinese medicine in the deactivation of
COVID-19. Therefore, the present investigation was undertaken to identify the leads from the liquorice plant against COVID-19 using molecular
docking simulation studies.
Materials and Methods:
A set of reported bioactive compounds of liquorice were investigated for COVID-19 main protease (Mpro) inhibitory
potential. The study was conducted on Autodock vina software using COVID-19 Mpro as a target protein having PDB ID: 6LU7.
Results:
Out of the total 20 docked compounds, only six compounds showed the best affinity towards the protein target, which included
glycyrrhizic acid, isoliquiritin apioside, glyasperin A, liquiritin, 1-methoxyphaseollidin and hedysarimcoumestan B. From the overall observation,
glycyrrhizic acid followed by isoliquiritin apioside demonstrated the best affinity towards Mpro representing the binding energy of
-8.6 and -7.9 Kcal/mol respectively. Nevertheless, the other four compounds were also quite comparable with the later one.
Conclusion:
From the present investigation, we conclude that the compounds having oxane ring and chromenone ring substituted with hydroxyl
3-methylbut-2-enyl group could be the best alternative for the development of new leads from liquorice plant against COVID-19.
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