Anti venom activity of medicinal plants from south America
The use of plants to subdue or reverse the effects of snakebite has long been recognized. Plant extracts were widely used as therapy for snakebite by South American traditional healers, and especially in tropical regions where plant resources are diverse and plentiful. Several medicinal plants ar...
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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| Formato: | parte de libro |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
| Publicado: |
Academic Press
2021
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | http://repositorio.unne.edu.ar/handle/123456789/28837 |
| Aporte de: |
| Sumario: | The use of plants to subdue or reverse the effects of snakebite has long been recognized.
Plant extracts were widely used as therapy for snakebite by South American traditional
healers, and especially in tropical regions where plant resources are diverse and plentiful.
Several medicinal plants are also believed to have been used as a source ofsnakebite antidote.
Reference to the use of plants as part of early indigenous ethnomedical practices appears in
traditional drug recipesrecovered from chronicles of Spanish explorers and includesevidence
that methods were passed on orally through generations. The most frequently encountered
poisonous snake genera found in regions of South America include: Bothrops (jarara/
lanceheads), Crotalus(casabel/rattlesnakes), Lachesis(surucucú/bushmasters) and Micrurus
(coral). Coralsnakes have very powerful venombut confrontation with thesesnakesisinfrequent
because of their quiet and secretive character. A bibliographic revision helped usidentify more
than one hundred seventy plants with anti-venom activity in South America. Most are
identified using their common names, sometimes making it difficult to determinetheformal
taxonomic name. Furthermore, the absence of availablereferences or other documentation to
verify oreven designate a properscientific name continuesto pose a problem. There have been
numerous attempts to study and characterize the anti-venom activity in native plants. We
show that modern methods that provide unequivocal identification of active compounds
together with in vitro and in vivo assays have enabled both evaluation and validation of
ancestral knowledge. Among the pharmacologically active secondary metabolites isolated
from plants, flavonoids are most frequently cited inhibiting phospholipases, lipoxygenases
and metalloproteases. |
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