Reverse pharmacognosy: identifying biological properties for plants by means of their molecule constituents: application to meranzin.

Reverse pharmacognosy aims at finding biological targets for natural compounds by virtual or real screening and identifying natural resources that contain the active molecules. We report herein a study focused on the identification of biological properties of meranzin, a major component isolated from Limnocitrus littoralis (Miq.) Swingle. Selnergy, an IN SILICO biological profiling software, was used to identify putative binding targets of meranzin. Among the 400 screened proteins, 3 targets were selected: COX1, COX2 and PPARgamma. Binding tests were realised for these 3 protein candidates, as well as two negative controls. The predictions made by Selnergy were consistent with the experimental results, meaning that these 3 targets can be modulated by an extract containing this compound in a suitable concentration. These results demonstrate that reverse pharmacognosy and its inverse docking component is a powerful tool to identify biological properties for natural molecules and hence for plants containing these compounds.