Cite this as
Vigneshwar S, Kowsalya A, John Kennedy SJ, Gopi P, Yuvaraj D (2023) A comprehensive overview of the pharmaceutical properties of Indian coastal sand dune flora: Emphasis on anti-virals. Ann Antivir Antiretrovir 7(1): 001-009. DOI: 10.17352/aaa.000016Copyright
© 2023 Vigneshwar S, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.Viral infections have an essential function in both humans and other organisms. The persistent rise in viral diseases has made critical damage to human well-being. The present review indicates that viral diseases are been entangled in various cancer developments. Developing safe and effective antiviral medications remains a challenge. As a result, finding therapeutic targets that would interfere with the virus without affecting the host is hard-hitting. The use of natural substances rather than chemicals in the formulation of antiviral medications could significantly minimize the risk of side effects in patients. Coastal dune vegetation is a vital resource, which plays an imperative part in biodiversity. Coastal dunes have various utilizations in restorative and drug development. The drugs from marine are vitally been utilized as medicine due to their substantial antiviral, anticancer, and antimicrobial activities. Though Coastal dunes flora has numerous possessions their antiviral properties are rarely reported. Hence, in this report, we have compiled and highlighted the antiviral properties of 128 Indian coastal dune flora. This review may provide access to a profound understanding of coastal dunes’ vegetation resources and their usage in the production of antiviral and anticancer drugs. It may also help to preserve and cultivate these plants.
The persistent emergence of some developing or reappearing viral diseases has made unadulterated damage to human well-being. The unique structure of the viral infections and their muddled life cycle made it extremely difficult to explore conclusive therapies against viral diseases. Viral infections are extremely minute toxins that are made of hereditary material within a protein covering, that destroys healthy cells. This can injure, harm, or alter the cells and cause illness to people [1]. Distinctive viral infections can influence numerous zones in the body, including the conceptive, skin, cerebrum, blood, breathing system, liver, respiratory, and gastrointestinal systems [2]. For most popular viral diseases, medicines can just assist with manifestations while the immune system will battle off the viral infection. Antibiotic agents are not significant for viral diseases.
Several studies expose that viral infection is involved in numerous malignant growths such as cancer and tumor [2]. Viral infections cause regular colds, moles, and flu. They likewise cause extreme diseases including Influenza, Dengue, Zika virus, Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV), Chikungunya, Hepatitis A (HSV), Hepatitis B (HSB), Hepatitis C (HCV), AIDS, Ebola, chickenpox, Human Immunodeficiency Infection (HIV) and COVID-19 [1]. Antiviral medications are available for treating some popular viral diseases. Immunizations and vaccines can assist with keeping from getting numerous viral illnesses.
Due to the recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the entire world is going through a very difficult time. To address this dire situation, therapeutic agents and vaccines against this virus are urgently needed. National Institute of Plant Genome Research, New Delhi, India, helps with research readiness in the fight against this virus. Three research groups are working hard to develop plant-based vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 and to investigate plant natural products that may be anti-viral in nature. The potential anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity of the identified molecule/s is being investigated in collaboration with the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in New Delhi and the Regional Centre for Biotechnology in Faridabad, India (National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR), New Delhi, 2020) [3]. Marine plants and animals have a wide range of natural compounds, which are essentially novel, conceptually revolutionary, and have pharmacological effects [1]. To substantiate the above, this study focuses on the popular anti-viral properties of vegetation on coastal sand dunes Figure 1.
Coastal sand dunes are naturally dynamic. A coastal sand dune is a slope of sand effort by wind activity and an expansion of the sea shore into the land. While a seashore is firmly connected to the ocean and constrained by waves and tides, the ridges are connected to the land and are constrained by winds [4]. Due to interoperability issues, mobility, substrate versatility, and physical cycles, the coastal sand dunes comprise a variety of microenvironments [1].
Coastal sand dunes serve as a home for certain essential plants and animals (rare and endangered species) [4]. Coastal flora and vegetation are related to resilience to the consistency and saltiness slope of residue, wind, marine vaporization, and the nearness of bitter water [5]. Coastal sand dunes provide fundamental biological system management as environments for local and imperiled species, a site that gives high travel industry esteem, groundwater revives zones, and properties from wave disintegration and tempest flooding [6]. Coastal sand dunes are substantially involved in various vegetation, fauna, and microorganisms [6].
The sand dune flora is an extremely essential resource in the healing, therapeutic, and economic [7]. The medications acquired from the ocean have the chance of exploiting in medication since it has enormous antiviral, antimicrobial, and anticancer activities [8]. The applications of coastal sand dunes include nutrients, feed, manure, flooder, nourishment, drug, firm and social uses [7]. Coastal sand dunes have been accounted for to contain a greater assortment of horticultural, agronomical, industrial, pharmaceutical, and chemically significant microorganisms [6].
All the clinical plants of coastal sand dunes were administered intravenously with added substances, for example, oil (coconut, sesame, and castor), milk and milk merchandise (buttermilk and ghee), normal salt, jaggery and nectar or applied remotely as a mixture, decoction, glue, or powder [8]. The greater parts of the plants utilized in medications are either blended in with different fixings or single. Many of these species varieties are known to be utilized in different medicines, as for relieving Jaundice, headache cure, dental abscess, hepatitis, mumps, dermatitis, cut, sinus headache, recuperating wounds, throat contamination, loose bowels, tingles, skin maladies, fix migraine, stomach ulcer, tumor, ear-hurt, eye torment, diabetes, colds, asthma, chest infections, and pneumonia in general [8].
Coastal sand dunes have numerous uses in the medicinal and pharmaceutical industries. Coastal sand dunes vegetations have an assortment of applications in the field of medication and drug ventures, for instance, vegetations of coastal sand dunes can be utilized as moderating, hypocholesterolemic, anti-acne, harm preventive, antihepatotoxicity, nematicide, antihistaminic, against eczematic, against skin break out, antiarthritic, mitigating, threatening to coronary, antiandrogenic, flavor, hemolytic, spermatogenic, hypocholesterolemic, slightness genic insectifuge, anti-inflammatory, hostile to coronary, immunostimulant, chemo-preventive, pesticide, torment easing, hostile to diabetic, pain relieving, cell support, against dermatitic, antileukemic, antitumor, anticancer, hepatoprotective, antispasmodic, antiasthma, diuretic, 5-alpha reductase inhibitor [9]. Coastal sand dunes have numerous properties or capacities, in spite of the fact that their antiviral properties are seldom referenced.
Challenges and future prospects: There is widespread agreement that plant metabolites have the potential to be novel antiviral agents against many viral diseases. These vegetation are abundant in coastal regions, have long been used in traditional medicine, and are thus prime candidates for the discovery of new bioactive metabolites. Several studies have been conducted to establish a link between the empirical uses of these plants to treat infections and photochemistry evidence of the compounds that underpin antiviral effects. However, efforts to investigate new pharmaceutical compounds and demonstrate their effect in vitro have not yet resulted in an antibiotic that is clinically beneficial and economically profitable. Concerns about drug-resistant microbes have heightened interest in plant-derived, effective antimicrobial compounds. Plants that have been used to treat infectious diseases for centuries now have a new lease on life. The detection and quantification of known, and even the discovery of new, small bioactive molecules produced by plants as secondary metabolites will open up new avenues of treatment for a wide range of infectious and noninfectious diseases. Extraction methods that are appropriate and optimised, susceptibility tests, and clinical trials are still required. The prospects for future research appear promising, with the potential discovery of new and effective treatments leading to significant advances [88,89]. Plant metabolomics based on mass spectrometry is an extremely powerful approach that is likely to provide comprehensive metabolite profiles of medicinal halophytes in the near future. In vitro tests are the first step in screening promising metabolites for antimicrobial effects, whether purified or in mixtures. Because of the complexity and diversity of chemical properties of plant metabolites, a combination of analytical platforms is required to increase the detection coverage of these compounds in biological samples. To detect volatile and nonvolatile metabolites, GC and HPLC coupled with mass spectrometry, as well as other techniques such as UPLC or NMR, are required to ensure that all or the majority of compounds are separated, detected, identified, quantified, and characterised. Each method should also cover a variety of extraction solvents in order to detect both polar and nonpolar compounds. The isolation and chemical characterization of each compound using NMR technologies, as well as testing them in bioassays, are critical steps toward determining each compound’s biological activity. Methodological approaches for in vitro tests, on the other hand, must be carefully tailored to the chemical nature of the metabolites or extracts. Protocols must be standardised and validated against representative biological models in order for product comparisons to be reliable and meaningful. Sand dune species serve as extremely important reservoirs. However, these resources have been put at greater risk as a result of forest clearing for industrialization, rapid urbanisation, over-exploitation and anthropogenic activities. So, with the help of local communities and an awareness, necessary steps should be taken to conserve floral diversity. To summarise, the vegetation of coastal sand dunes can be vitally used as therapeutic agents in the medical and pharmaceutical industries, and as such, they must be conserved and further cultivated for the community’s benefit.
Yuvaraj: Conceptualization, Methodology, Vigneshwar and Kowsalya: Writing- Original draft preparation, Sarah and Praveen: Review and revisions. All the authors approved the manuscript.
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
The authors thank the managements of Vel Tech High Tech Dr. Rangarajan Dr. Sakunthala Engineering College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, The Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus–Senftenberg, Senftenberg, Brandenburg, Germany, Anna University Tiruchirappalli, BIT CAMPUS, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, India for support and facilities provided.
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