Ananta Swargiary*
Department of Zoology, Bodoland University, Kokrajhar – 783370, Assam, India.
*Address for correspondence
Dr. Ananta Swargiary
Department of Zoology, Bodoland University, Kokrajhar 783370, India
Abstract
The use of medicinal plants against diseases is an age-old practice which in recent times has caught the global attraction towards natural product drug discovery. Today, many modern drugs have originated in ethnopharmacology and traditional medicine. The identification of promising drug candidates, however, is a troublesome job that requires both classical and sophisticated modern screening methods. Many studies have devoted to understanding the basic principle and methods of drug discovery that can predict and eliminate the problematic molecules from further consideration. In this review, importance was given to outline the employment of modern tools and technologies towards discovering a novel drug. The relationship between experimental and computational approaches to the selection and optimization of bioactive compounds is also highlighted. This paper thus provides a brief perspective on the use of key drug design technologies, highlighting the opportunities and challenges of ethnopharmacological knowledge which can be an innovative and powerful discovery engine for newer, safer and affordable medicines.
Keywords: Drug discovery, ethnomedicine, diseases
