Bioactive Compounds from Plants Used as Therapeutic Agents in Biomedical Applications – a Literature Review –

Abstract

This review proposes an extensive study of some bioactive compounds produced by plants (piperine - PIP, curcumin - CUC, resveratrol – RES, icariin - ICA) with beneficial effects on human health. In addition to these compounds, the need for natural pigments, carotenoids in the body's daily diet and implicitly in nano-science and medicine is also debated. This study points to complexes of proactive compounds as well as their interaction with other drugs (e.g., doxorubicin: DOX, 5-fluorouracil: 5-FLU, paclitaxel: PCT) and metal nanoparticles (such as: gold nanoparticles: GNP, AuNP, and silver nanoparticles: SNP, AgNP) with applications in cancer cell lines and bacterial investigation, as well as using viral and fungal strains. This study also opens new opportunities of multi-functional metallic nanoparticles, realized by self-assemblies through molecular recognition among bioactive compounds on GNP or SNP, for their biomedical applications that require continuous development in terms of infections and the need to treat cancer and other diseases.