Subash Chandra Gupta1, Sahdeo Prasad2, Amit K Tyagi2, Ajaikumar B Kunnumakkara3, Bharat B Aggarwal4. 1. Laboratory for Translational Cancer Research, Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. Electronic address: sgupta@bhu.ac.in. 2. Department of Experimental Therapeutics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, USA. 3. Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, India. 4. Inflammation Research Center, San Diego, CA, USA. Electronic address: bbaggarwal@gmail.com.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: For centuries, agents derived from natural sources (mother nature), especially plants have been the primary source of medicine. Neem, also referred to as Azadirachta indica is one such plant that has been so named because it provides freedom from all diseases, and used for thousands of years in Indian and African continents. Different parts of the plant including flowers, leaves, seeds and bark have been used to treat both acute and chronic human diseases; and used as insecticide; antimicrobial, larvicidal, antimalarial, antibacterial, antiviral, and spermicidal. PURPOSE: What is there in neem and how it manifests its wide variety of effects is the focus of this review. How neem and its constituents modulate various cellular pathways is discussed. The animal and human studies carried out with neem and its constituents is also discussed. CONCLUSION: Over 1000 research articles published on neem has uncovered over 300 structurally diverse constituents, one third of which are limonoids including nimbolide, azadarachtin, and gedunin. These agents manifest their effects by modulating multiple cell signaling pathways.
BACKGROUND: For centuries, agents derived from natural sources (mother nature), especially plants have been the primary source of medicine. Neem, also referred to as Azadirachta indica is one such plant that has been so named because it provides freedom from all diseases, and used for thousands of years in Indian and African continents. Different parts of the plant including flowers, leaves, seeds and bark have been used to treat both acute and chronic human diseases; and used as insecticide; antimicrobial, larvicidal, antimalarial, antibacterial, antiviral, and spermicidal. PURPOSE: What is there in neem and how it manifests its wide variety of effects is the focus of this review. How neem and its constituents modulate various cellular pathways is discussed. The animal and human studies carried out with neem and its constituents is also discussed. CONCLUSION: Over 1000 research articles published on neem has uncovered over 300 structurally diverse constituents, one third of which are limonoids including nimbolide, azadarachtin, and gedunin. These agents manifest their effects by modulating multiple cell signaling pathways.
Authors: Jessica N Spradlin; Xirui Hu; Carl C Ward; Scott M Brittain; Michael D Jones; Lisha Ou; Milton To; Andrew Proudfoot; Elizabeth Ornelas; Mikias Woldegiorgis; James A Olzmann; Dirksen E Bussiere; Jason R Thomas; John A Tallarico; Jeffrey M McKenna; Markus Schirle; Thomas J Maimone; Daniel K Nomura Journal: Nat Chem Biol Date: 2019-06-17 Impact factor: 15.040