Traditional Ethnomedicinal Plants: A Rich Source of Bioactive Molecules Used in Drug Discovery and Development

Numerous drugs on the market today have their roots in natural compounds, which also provide as an extensive database of diverse chemical leads for potential new drug candidates. Since ancient times, herbal medicine has been used in therapies that aim to treat a variety of illnesses. In India, the Ayurvedic, Unani, Siddha, and other indigenous ethnic systems of herbal treatment are used by roughly 65–70% of the rural population. It is crucial to find biologically active substances in natural extracts, such as those from plants, fungus, fruits or microorganisms, not only for the development of new drugs but also to unravel the molecular mechanisms associated with the medicinal properties of phyto-preparations. With their impact on numerous domains of scientific knowledge, technological development, and economic activity, natural products and their chemistry are experiencing an extraordinary resurgence in popularity. The traditional herbals’ prominence in ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology has given chemists new possibilities as well as obstacles in their exploration for drugs and other health-related products. The introduction of specifically designed chemoinformatic methodologies, the advancement of isolation and characterization techniques, and the rise in computational tools, all contributed to the smooth evolution from traditional ethnopharmacology to drug discovery. An overview of bioactive compounds derived from natural products, their pharmacological activities, and several online databases relating to natural products’ availability and characteristics have been covered in this chapter.