Harnessing Technology for Drug Discovery: Computational Approaches to Toxicokinetics and ADME in Medicinal Plants
Asha S Raj *
Department of Dravyaguna, ITRA, Jamnagar, India.
R N Acharya
CCRAS, New Delhi, India.
B R Patel
Department of Dravyaguna, ITRA, Jamnagar, India.
S D Pawar
CCRAS-CARI, Kolkata, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
From time immemorial, natural products were the source for food and medicine. The unique properties of plants helped mankind to survive through centuries. The unique chemical structure resulted in peculiar pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic properties and thus made them suitable drug candidates. Last century witnessed emergence of a wide array of new epidemic diseases. To discover drugs to combat these situations are really a challenging task for the scientists. This can be simplified by mining the data regarding ADME and toxicokinetic profile of plants. This will help the research community to narrow down the search strategies for new drug development and streamline the advancements in drug research. This article gives an insight about the preliminary techniques adopted for in silico drug designing, toxicokinetics and ADME profiling of a newly discovered plant or research on an existing plant/plant part for a new disease.
Keywords: Drug discovery, ADME, toxicokinetic, computational approaches