Moringa oleifera Lam. and derived phytochemicals as promising antiviral agents: A review

Frequent use of medicinal plants is common in healthcare needs of mankind since ancient ages. Among these Moringa oleifera Lam. is one of the vastly used plant whose various parts (leaf, fruit, seeds etc.) are included in regular diet for their multiple ability of combating several health issues. WHO has highlighted on the proper utilization of natural products and marked plant-based medicines as prime study candidates. Taking initiative to explore bioactive leads other than conventional chemotherapeutic agents (with undesirable side effects) have drawn attention of the scientists involved in viral research due to the lack of effective vaccines and insufficient supply of existing costly drugs to socio-economic demands. Several studies were reported regarding the antiviral activity of M. oleifera plant, a pronounced bioprospective aspirant. The plant is known to be used in many traditional medicines and pharmacopeias against an array of medical conditions that include malaria, diabetes, skin infection, tuberculosis, anemia, headaches, epilepsy, sexually transmitted diseases and so on. In African traditional medicine, the plant is popularly used against AIDS and related secondary infections associated with HIV. It showed significant activities against viruses like HIV, HSV, HBV, EBV, FMDV and NDV. In some cases active molecules with mode of actions were documented by authors. On the other hand, there is a number of reports where neither lead compounds nor the relevant mechanisms were clarified regarding the viral inhibitory activities of crude plant extract. Immense studies should be going on to resolve those unanswered motifs along with the well planned trials of clinical application of already discovered potent phytochemicals. For conducting the continuous investigational groundwork in this field, the respective plant should be preserved with proper maintenance, necessarily.