Phyto-Epigenetics: An Approach to Unlock Myriads of Genetic Predisposition

Epigenetics, a fairly upcoming scientific area of research, is an interface between the environment and our genes regulating the genome toward environmental stimuli. Epigenetic modifications are considered to play a significant role in the regulation of gene expression. Dietary phytochemicals are also known to play an important role in epigenetically modulating gene expression by altering genes at chemical level thus aiding in curing multiple diseases. These phytochemicals are abundantly present as secondary metabolites in vegetables, fruits, and seeds as bioactive component that is reported to modulate epigenetic plasticity for the treatment of several chronic diseases. Ancient and traditional herbal medicine is an area of contemporary researchers because of low toxicity and its effectiveness in disease treatment. Several research highlight the epigenetic modification capacity of herbal medicines and its ability to combat the progression of the diseases, namely cancer, diabetes, inflammation, liver fibrosis, asthma, and hypertension-induced renal injury. The concept of artificial intelligence (AI) has biological implications in gene editing, drug designing and optimization, personalized medicines, and study of host–pathogen interactions. AI can alter the metabolic and other signaling pathways with minimum effort through the implementation of machine learning and deep learning programs. In this chapter, we have tried to highlight the impact of herbal medicine and its bioactive components on disease epigenome and their role to combat the progression of several chronic diseases.