Pluripotent Stem Cells in Ethnomedicinal Plant Drug Discovery

Herbal medicine is used as chemotherapeutic agents to prevent cancer and to cure a variety of illnesses, including infections, diabetes, jaundice, and diarrhea. Many tribal communities are using herbal-based products which include different parts of the plants such as root, leaves, flower, and stem. Based on their phytochemical constituents, the plant extraction process is carried out which can be of pharmacological use. Thus, these plant-based medicines are termed as ethnomedicines. Stem cells are a group of undifferentiated cells which further divide to produce new cells. These are the source of cells which differentiate into tissue and organs. During embryonic development, a unique type of stem cells exists called as pluripotent stem cells which have the ability to form three basic body layers (ectoderm, endoderm, mesoderm). The pluripotent stem cells have the ability to differentiate to any kind of cells and also have self-regenerative capacity. Due to this astonishing property of pluripotent cells, they are widely used in research for the understanding of various human diseases. In fact, many clinical trials have been carried out using these pluripotent cells and tissues for evaluation of drugs or medicines for the treatment of various diseases. In this chapter, we are exploring the application of these pluripotent stem cells by using ethnomedicines drugs which are discovered. The ability of these pluripotent stem cells to proliferate and differentiate into a wide variety of various cell types makes them useful as models for determining how drugs work, how to treat patients, and even how these herbal treatments work.