Drug Discovery from Ethnomedicinal Plants in the Genomics Era

Ethnomedicinal plants are employed in folk medicine to treat a variety of ailments. The genomic era has introduced new tools and technologies to the field of ethnopharmacology, promoting a renewed interest in the discovery of new drugs from plants. It has enabled scientists to find genes that encode potent secondary metabolites which are prospective therapeutic products by sequencing the genomes and revolutionizing drug discovery from ethnomedicinal plants. Gene sequencing also enables high-throughput, information-rich molecular observations through a system biology approach. To find patterns and connections between genes and the relevant metabolites, genomic data can be analyzed using bioinformatic tools. This can aid in prioritizing the most promising leads for follow-up study. Further to anticipate the structure and properties of possible therapeutic products derived from ethnomedicinal plants, computational chemistry methods are being employed. This abets scientists in locating substances that are likely to be both safe and efficient. This chapter, therefore, focuses primarily on various DNA sequencing tools, next-generation sequencing methods, and mapping of key genes and their expressions to delineate the underlying pharmacological mechanisms of various ethnomedicinal plants with appropriate examples.