HERBAL MEDICINES AND SAPONINS: AN OVERVIEW

ABSTRACT

Plants that are used medicinally or as herbs are utilised extensively due to the numerous beneficial features they contain and are, for the most part, risk-free and devoid of any adverse consequences. Saponins are naturally occurring sugar-conjugated molecules that participate in a wide variety of biological processes. These processes include therapeutic qualities, antibacterial activity, antiviral activity, and many others. In many plants and plant extracts, like liquorice and ginseng, which are being researched for their potential use as medicine sources, the production of saponin is a natural and necessary aspect of the plant’s growth and development process. Herbal compounds have shown significant potential against a broad variety of infectious agents, including viruses such as the SARS-CoV; these are all-natural medications and do not display any unwanted side effects. Herbal compounds have also shown remarkable potential against other infectious agents. This article discusses the various aspects of saponin biosynthesis and extraction, the necessity for their incorporation into more mainstream medicinal therapies, and how saponins may have the potential to be useful in the treatment of viral diseases such as COVID-19, HIV, HSV, rotavirus, and others. The research published to far provides a comprehensive evaluation of the efficiency of saponin in targeting the aforementioned viral illnesses, which collectively account for a high mortality rate across the globe. This publication discusses the significance of saponins as a potential source of dynamic plant-based antiviral treatments as well as the many ways that may be used to extract saponins from a variety of different plants.

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