In silico and Computational Analysis of Plant Secondary Metabolites from African Medicinal Plants

Abstract

The African flora holds an enormous potential for the discovery of new hit/lead compounds. Also, natural products from the region have played an important role in drug discovery, as they have provided scaffolds as starting points. The lack of ultra-modern state-of-art research facilities in the majority of the laboratories in these developing countries has led to the resolution of known compounds. There is overharvesting of medicinal plants for their secondary metabolites from the natural habitats which has led to the extinction of certain plant species. Natural products have complex chemical structures with a broad range of biological activities but most of them are not drug-like. Due to this, researchers turn to alternative and innovative methods to meet the increased demand for these natural products. In recent years, computer-aided drug design has gained enormous momentum in natural products drug discovery and its contributions to drug discovery are increasing. The rationale behind in silico methods is to cut down cost, prevent extinction of endangered species and to accelerate the identification of new and improved drug candidates from nature. Thus researchers working in drug discovery in the continent have developed natural product databases of compounds with a web interface. This review reports the content of CamMedNP, ConMedNP, NANPDB, p-ANAPL, AfroDb, AfroCancer, AfroMalariaDb, Afrotryp, Ethiopia (ETM-DB), and South Africa (SANCDB).