Ethnobotany and Antimicrobial Peptides From Plants of the Solanaceae Family: An Update and Future Prospects

Abstract

The Solanaceae is an important plant family that has been playing an essential role in traditional medicine and human nutrition. Members of the Solanaceae are rich in bioactive metabolites and have been used by different tribes around the world for ages. Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) from plants have drawn great interest in recent years and raised new hope for developing new antimicrobial agents for meeting the challenges of antibiotic resistance. This review aims to summarize the reported AMPs from plants of the Solanaceae with possible molecular mechanisms of action as well as to correlate their traditional uses with reported antimicrobial actions of the peptides. A systematic literature study was conducted using different databases until August 2019 based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. According to literature, a variety of AMPs including defensins, protease inhibitor, lectins, thionin-like peptides, vicilin-like peptides, and snaking were isolated from plants of the Solanaceae and were involved in their defense mechanism. These peptides exhibited significant antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral activity against organisms for both plant and human host. Brugmansia, Capsicum, Datura, Nicotiana, Salpichora, Solanum, Petunia, and Withania are the most commonly studied genera for AMPs. Among these genera, Capsicum and the Solanum ranked top according to the total number of studies (35%-38% studies) for different AMPs. The mechanisms of action of the reported AMPs from Solanaceae was not any new rather similar to other reported AMPs including alteration of membrane potential and permeability, membrane pore formation, and cell aggregation. Whereas, induction of cell membrane permiabilization, inhibition of germination and alteration of hyphal growth were reported as mechanisms of antifungal activity. Plants of the Solanaceae have been used traditionally as antimicrobial, insecticidal, and antiinfectious agents, and as poisons. The reported AMPs from the Solanaceae are the products of chemical shields to protect plants from microorganisms

Ethnomedicinal Plants of Hasankeyf (Batman-Turkey)

“…In the study area, the smoke of burnt fruit of Solanum americanum is used for curing ear problems. As mentioned in a recent study ( Afroz et al, 2020 ), Solanum genus contains plenty of snakin-2 peptide, which has significant antimicrobial activity. Also, there are four more taxa used for ear problems: Allium cepa , Dioscorea communis , Hyoscyamus albus , and Persica vulgaris .…”

Pesticidal Activity of Sundarban Mangrove Plant Extracts against Sitophilus Pests and Identification of Active Constituents Using LC-MS

“…Plants have the ability to develop different constitutive and inducible mechanisms for the protection from pathogen and herbivores via various secondary chemical compounds or morphological barriers [ 28 ]. A number of plant secondary metabolites have also been reported to use for the management of pests [ 29 ].…”

Steroidal saponins from the roots of Solanum sisymbriifolium Lam. (Solanaceae) have inhibitory activity against dengue virus and yellow fever virus

“…Paraguay has an ancient tradition of using medicinal plants, which are promising candidates for the isolation of useful substances capable of being potential lead compounds from which new therapeutics may be developed. Plants of the Solanaceae family have been used in many countries because of their medicinal properties, including those used in Ayurveda and Chinese traditional medicine ( 10 ). Most genera of the family have great importance either as food or as sources of medicinal substances that have been used today, such as hyoscyamine and scopolamine ( 11 ).…”