Abstract
The research focused on the biochemistry and the medicinal uses of alkaloids, terpenes,polyphenols, and glycosides. Several parts of plants such as bark, root, leaf, stem, etc. are being used torevert abnormalities back to normal, prevent illnesses, or allay symptoms. These plant parts containbioactive compounds such as terpenes, glycosides, polyphenols, and alkaloids. Alkaloids have a rangeof pharmacological activities such as antiasthma (e.g. ephedrine), anticancer (e.g. homoharringtonine),antimalarial (e.g. quinine). Other alkaloids possess stimulant (e.g. cocaine, caffeine, theobromine, nicotine)and psychotropic activities (e.g. psilocin), and have been widely used as recreational drugs orin entheogenic rituals. Alkaloids can be toxic too (e.g. tubocurarine, atropine). Although alkaloids act ondiverse metabolic systems in humans and animals, they almost uniformly induce a bitter taste. Thecharacteristics and number of the structures of phenol in polyphenols underlie the unique chemical,physical, and biological (metabolic, therapeutic, toxic, etc.) properties of specific members of the class;e.g. ellagitannin and tannic acid. Generally, foods often contain complex mixtures of polyphenols. Severalpolyphenolic extracts, such as from grape seeds, olive pulp, maritime pine bark, or grape skin, are sold asingredients for functional foods, cosmetics, and dietary supplements. Terpenoids and terpenes are theprimary components of the essential oils of most types of flowers plants. Essential oils are used widely asscents and fragrances in perfumery and also in traditional medicine, such as aromatherapy. Similarly,many plant glycosides are used as medicines. Amygdalin and laetrile (a synthetic derivative) wereinvestigated as potential drugs for cancer treatment and were promoted as alternative medicine;nevertheless, they are ineffective and dangerous. Pharmacologically active phytochemicals can haveuseful applications, as well as safety concerns.
Highlights
The use of plants to cure many human diseases has a long history
Many marine organisms contain alkaloids. Several amines, such as serotonin and adrenaline, which play a significant role in the higher animals, are similar to the alkaloids in their biosynthesis and structure and are sometimes referred to as alkaloids
Alkaloids have a wide range of pharmacological activities including antimalarial, antiasthma, anticancer
Summary
The use of plants to cure many human diseases has a long history. Several parts of plants such as the leaf, stem, bark, root, among others, are being used to prevent, allay symptoms or to revert abnormalities back to normal. The search and quest for plants with medicinal uses have led to many ethnobotanical studies that documented species of traditional medicinal plant, the preparation mode, and uses by local communities in many parts of the country [7, 8]. The identifications of these medicinal plants and in later stage the investigations of the quality and toxicity are of the utmost importance. A lot of invaluable indigenous information about the uses of medicinal plants are being lost from one generation to the other and with the growing rate of destruction of habitats, plant resources including the medicinal plants are threatened or are getting depleted
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