Herbs for Disease Prevention and Treatment

Diabetes mellitus is a global health issue related to insulin that is associated with a high rate of morbidity and mortality. Synthetic hypoglycemic medications can be used to treat diabetes; however, long-term use of these medications has several negative effects. As a result, there is a paradigm change in favor of using natural agents that may be antidiabetic. The marine environment is a rich source of both biological and chemical diversity, which is being investigated to identify novel compounds with potential for use in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and nutritional supplement industries. Marine organisms, especially marine macroalgae, comprise numerous significant novel secondary metabolites possessing strong pharmacological characteristics that have been identified. Sources of marine macroalgae include various bioactive compounds exhibiting various health-promoting properties. Hence, the present chapter aimed to discuss the different antidiabetic mechanisms of bioactive compounds from marine macroalgae and also talked about the variety of marine macroalgal bioactive substances that could help avoid or manage type 2 diabetes by focusing on several pharmacologically significant pathways, such as preventing the activity of enzymes like lipase, α-glucosidase, α-amylase, aldose reductase, protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B, and dipeptidyl-peptidase-4.

Recently, there has been a surge of investment in various dietary supplements as these offer varied health advantages and are alternatives to the existing treatment. Dietary supplements are frequently used and have the capacity to boost health if given to individuals who need them. Micronutrient inadequacies and nutritional deficiencies are common conditions that have a negative influence on global well-being. Although better diet quality is imperative to fix these problems, people who are at risk for deficiencies may benefit from dietary supplements and/or food fortification to assist them in fulfilling their nutritional needs. The goal of this review is to evaluate the key minerals as well as the fat-soluble vitamins and water-soluble vitamins that are vital for human health and well-being.

In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in nutraceuticals, which offer health advantages and are alternatives to the existing treatment. Nutraceuticals can be extracted, incorporated as dietary supplements, and added to foods. Nutrients, herbs, and dietary supplements are the primary components of nutraceuticals that make them useful for preserving health, combating various diseases, and enhancing the quality of life. The booming expansion, research advancements, marketing fervor, quality control, and regulation will have a significant impact on their success or failure. The intention of this review is to evaluate the principal nutraceuticals that have an important function in the mitigation and cure of infectious as well as non-infectious illnesses.

Nutraceuticals can be utilized to improve wellness, reduce the rate of aging, avert chronic diseases, prolong life, andkeep the body in good shape. Because of their excellent nutritive, safety, as well as potential health benefits, nutraceuticals have lately received considerable interest. Supplementing the diet can help fulfill the increased nutritional requirements of one’s highly demanding lifestyle or health condition. Stress, health problems, and a vigorous lifestyle can all lead to an increased demand for very precise minerals or vitamins in the body. This article provides insight into various plant compounds that have therapeutic properties and that can be used as health supplements with nutraceutical activities.

The contamination of aflatoxin (AF) in animal diets manifests harmful effects on animal health and productivity. The effect of ethanolic leaf extracts of Solanum americanum in rat diet against aflatoxicosis has been discussed. All hematological and biochemical parameters of AF-alone treated rats were significantly changed when compared to normal diet-treated ones. The obtained results indicated that the administration of the leaf extract of S. americanum to aflatoxicated rats improved the hematological and biochemical parameters toward their respective normal value. Molecular docking studies have been undertaken for the phytoconstituents reported for this plant against two cancers and inflammation-related protein targets. The results of this study indicated that S. americanum has the possibility of serving as an easily obtainable natural antiaflatoxigenic source for food supplements or the pharmaceutical sector.

The plant kingdom is as diverse as the animal kingdom. There are several species that are yet to be discovered or whose therapeutic properties are undiscovered. Many of the species may have become extinct before they were discovered. This work investigates the function of herbalism in the context of its history and significance. The diversified geographical terrain sustaining several indigenous species of plants of medicinal importance is described. The usage of herbal practices and several techniques are highlighted. The toxicity of plant-based medicines and the progress of several clinical trials are also discussed.

The ‘Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome – Corona Virus -2’ (SARS-CoV2), identified first in China on 31st December 2019, immediately became a pandemic health concern. ‘Coronavirus Disease–2019’ (COVID-19) outbreak wasdeclared a global pandemic by the WHO in March 2020. More than 4,786,203 people died as a result of this illness, and about 233,908,734 people worldwide had been infected as of 1 st October 2021. Multi-organ involvement of COVID-19 often leads to death and other complications like cerebrovascular and various thyroid diseases. As SARS-CoV-2 has a level of resemblance with SARS-CoV, the antivirals used earlier have been attempted in the COVID-19 treatment. Proposing new antivirals is a lengthy process for SARSCoV2, and drug repurposing is also another route to reduce the number of deaths. SARS-CoV-2-infected patients who already have diseases like diabetes, hypertension, etc., are at more risk. Using phytocompounds as a control of SARS-CoV2 is also the need of the hour as the side effects of these are expected to be very less compared to the synthetic ones or vaccines. This review covers the above aspects in detail and reports the outcomes for the past few years period. The use of bioinformatics tools is also emphasized in this chapter.

The traditional healthcare system of North East India encompasses a rich repository of medicinal herbs that have been utilized for centuries to address various health concerns. Traditional medicine practitioners, with their distinct diagnostic methods, often rely on attentive observation and tactile examination to discern health issues, devoid of modern diagnostic instruments. Remedies are prepared from fresh plant materials collected from nature and prescribed to patients, frequently in composite forms comprising multiple herbs or their parts. In this study, we focus on three notable herbs: Polygonum hydropiper, Coptis teeta, and Lasia spinosa. They have been traditionally used to alleviate pain, reduce swelling, and treat conditions such as arthritis and rheumatism. Also, they possess antimicrobial, antioxidant and antiinflammatory activities. These plants hold immense therapeutic potential and exhibit the invaluable wealth of traditional knowledge that continues to inform and enrich contemporary pharmaceutical endeavors.

The repetitive frying of food items in the same plant edible oil in order to reduce the cost is a common practice among street food vendors. However, repeated heating and frying can cause spoilage of oil by altering the physicochemical and nutritional qualities of cooking oils. The fried food items in the reused and reheated cooking oil lead to various diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, atherosclerosis, etc. The health risks associated with using reused and reheated cooking oil are causing a significant concern in the medical world. The focus of this study was to identify the structurally modified fatty acids and formation of various toxic compounds in the reused and reheated cooking oil samples derived from plant-based and animal-based fast food items for comparative analysis. Fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The major toxic compounds detected from plant-based oil samples were phorbol (2.06%) and campesterol (50.06%). On the other hand, from animal-based oil, hentriacontane (50.8%), trimethylsilyloxytetradecane (70.2%), and estra-1,3,5 (10)-trien-17-β-ol (12.40%) were detected. Also, the amino acid profiling of the oil samples was performed using HPLC. Higher concentrations of the amino acids found were lysine (4.30μg/mL in plant-based oil samples and 5.24μg/mL in animal-based oil samples), phenylalanine (3.03μg/mL in plant-based oil samples and 40.6μg/mL in animal-based oil samples) and aspartic acid (9μg/mL in plant-based oil samples and 10.6μg/mL in animal-based oil samples). The outcome of this study infers that continuous consumption of food items deeply fried and heated with re-used oils would indirectly lead to complications in humans, and this comparative study reflects the distinction between the types of diets, animal-based and plant-based, and also between unused oil stock and repeatedly used cooking oil stock.

Traditional medical systems are evolving through technological advancements, with numerous scientific experiments in genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, and pathway analysis driving discoveries in health-related issues. The primary physiological role of the kidney is the elimination of metabolic waste products and the regulation of homeostasis within the body. Renal dysfunction, characterized by the impairment of these vital functions, precipitates severe complications. Dialysis serves as a therapeutic intervention to ameliorate renal failure by effectively extricating waste products and surplus fluids from the bloodstream. Though dialysis helps in treating renal failure, it cannot cure it completely. Although synthetic drugs are not fully successful, the old medicinal system offers new paths for scientific investigations. The herbs Aerva lanata and Aerva javanica have a plethora of information about folkloric traditions and traditional characteristics of therapeutically relevant medications. The genes responsible for kidney failure are collected from NCBI and GEO databases. The network is constructed using STRING, and hub genes are identified from Cytoscape. These hub genes show valid interaction with compounds of A. lanata and A. javanica herbs than the synthetic compounds that are used in treating kidney failure. Further, the gene expression, survival and pathways are analyzed, and experiments are carried out for clinical trials. There are still numerous opportunities for researchers, practitioners, and professionals in this sector to preserve conventional healthcare systems and contribute to their future growth.