MOLECULAR MECHANISM OF BIOACTIVE COMPOUNDS
Authors: Galgatte Upendra , Gharat Parth , Pulichera Yugandhar , Raju M. Kalyan Kumar 
Published: May 2024

Herbal compounds are secondary metabolites that are derived from various plant parts. These herbal compounds hold an upper hand in terms of chemical as well as pharmacological diversity which isbeyond the limits of current synthetic chemistry. Till now, more than a thousand small molecules have been approved, of which 60% are drug substances and most of the approved drugs are either coming from nature or inspired from herbal compounds. Moreover, nature will still dominate to be a vital resource of molecular complexity-diversity, for the development of new chemical entities. Many investigations have evidenced that plants of ethnomedicinal value were rich in naturally occurring medicinal compounds including alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, glycosides, etc, and were clinically demonstrated to manage many lifestylediseases and associated pathological conditions. The Molecular mechanism of action of these drugs rangesfrom effects on Receptors, ion channels, and enzymes to influences on cell signalling pathways. These drugs have a critical role in enhancing people‘s health and quality of life, and hence in societal progress. However,the creation of synthetic pharmaceuticals is becoming increasingly challenging due to rising development costs, cycle lengthening, a steep fall in success rates, increased environmental degradation, and various adverse drug reactions on humans. As a result, large pharmaceutical firms see the quest for lead chemicals to create innovative medications as a lifeline. Mainly these medications comprise compounds extracted from different parts of the plant and purified by various techniques. Natural secondary metabolites with newstructures have been generated in organisms throughout their lengthy evolutionary history. These may exert many biological activities in humans, including metabolic profiling, key targeted cellular signalling pathways, and critical mechanistic insights into specific biological functions of plant-derived bioactive compounds. Based on the physicochemical characteristics, hydrophilicity, or hydrophobicity of the target phytochemical are employed in a certain delivery form. Due to their weak bioavailability, low water solubility, stability, and high volatile properties delivery systems of phytochemicals are restricted. Different techniques like dendrimers, mesopores, nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC), nano emulsions, liposomes, and noisome as novel nanocarriers for phytochemical bioactive compounds to deal with these problems can be addressed. It is delivered. The co-crystals of palmatine chloride, due to its hygroscopicity issues, using gallic acid as a conformer are developed. The antiinflammatory activity of sanguinarine is reported by preparing solid lipid nanoparticles. The solubility of ellagic acid is improved by using a supersaturatable selfmicro emulsifying drug delivery system. A novel delivery system for ellagic acid is by formulating layer-by-layer (Lb-L) electrostatic deposition of biopolymers onto soybean lecithin liposomes. The novel formulation of nobiletin (NOB, a citruspolymethoxylated flavone) by nanocrystalline solid dispersion (nCSD) approach for improving dissolution behaviour and oral absorption. Also, Lipid-based delivery systems, such as self-nano-emulsifying drug delivery systems used for hydrophobic compounds like nobiletin. Based on the physicochemical characteristics, hydrophilicity, or hydrophobicity of the target phytochemical or natural product, the type of nanoparticles employed in a certain delivery application can be chosen. In this aspect, the liposomal aqueous compartment created by the phospholipid& hydrophilic head groups may be ideal for containing one or more hydrophilic medications. Although liposomes have also been employed in situations where the lipophilicdrug dissolves within the liposomal bilayer, a lipophilic medication is better suited for administration with amicelle, in which the lipophilic tails that contain phospholipids serve as the drugcontaining compartment. Due to lipophilicity and substantial first-pass metabolism, the phyto-cannabinoid cannabidiol has a low oralbioavailability. To overcome these problems, a novel self-emulsifying drug delivery system (SEDDS) is introduced. Amphiphilic drug-lipid complexes can increase the therapeutic effectiveness of pharmaceuticalsby increasing their solubility, prolonged or controlled release, and oral bioavailability. The futuristic approach for the drug delivery of the phytochemicals could be in nanostructure form usingdifferent forms of nanoparticles like nanocarrier, nanocrystalline solid dispersion, nanocrystals, and also theliposomes for the hydrophilic compounds and self-emulsifying drug delivery system