94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
REVIEW article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Ethnopharmacology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fphar.2025.1548929
This article is part of the Research Topic Plant Metabolites in Drug Discovery: The Prism Perspective between Plant Phylogeny, Chemical Composition, and Medicinal Efficacy, Volume IV View all articles
A comprehensive review on recent advances in the use of ethnomedicinal plants and their metabolites in snake bite treatment Author's Name
Provisionally accepted
Ashish Kumar 1*
Rameshwari A. Banjara 2* Roman Kumar Aneshwari 3* Junaid Khan 4* Paulo Sergio Bernarde 5*- 1 Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, Bilaspur, India
- 2 Department of Chemistry, Rajeev Gandhi Government Postgraduate College, Ambikapur Chhattisgarh 497001, Ambikapur, India
- 3 School of Pharmacy, MATS University, Raipur, Chhattisgarh India 492 004, Raipur, India
- 4 Department of Pharmacy, Sant Gahira Guru Vishwavidyalaya, Sarguja Ambikapur, Chhattisgarh India 497 001, Ambikapur, India
- 5 Laboratório de Herpetologia, Centro Multidisciplinar, Campus Floresta, Universidade Federal do Acre, Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil, Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil
Snakebites are a severe medical and social issue, particularly in tropical and subtropical countries with minimal medical facilities, where the most dangerous snakes are found. Worldwide, most rural areas use medicinal plants alone or in combination as antidotes for snakebite treatment. Local knowledge of medicinal plants for snakebite treatment plays a more critical role in primary health care services in rural areas. As a result of this review, it is revealed that 39% of herbs, 38% of shrubs, 18% of trees, 2% of climbers, 2% of bulbs, and 1% of ferns have snake antivenom potential, which is indicative of the presence of numerous phytochemicals such as alkaloids, coumarins, curcuminoids, flavonoids, steroids, triterpenoids, and cinnamic acid in particular plants. According to the availability of information, the data focus on the plants, their families, and their parts from various literature sources. In the future, the valuable plants reported here and their phytoconstituents may be potential sources for developing effective natural drugs for snake bite treatments. Therefore, this review is a comprehensive study of the snake antivenom potential of various medicinal plants and their bioactive compounds.
Keywords: Snakebite, Snake venom, Ethnomedicine, Medicinal plants, Phytoconstituents Abbreviations : BthTX1, Bothropstoxin-1, BthTX2, Bothropstoxin-2, ELISA, Eenzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay, IgG, immunoglobulin G, PLA2, phospholipase A2, RIA, Radioimmunoassay, WHO, World Health Organisation
Received: 20 Dec 2024; Accepted: 12 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Kumar, Banjara, Aneshwari, Khan and Bernarde. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Ashish Kumar, Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya, Bilaspur, India
Rameshwari A. Banjara, Department of Chemistry, Rajeev Gandhi Government Postgraduate College, Ambikapur Chhattisgarh 497001, Ambikapur, India
Roman Kumar Aneshwari, School of Pharmacy, MATS University, Raipur, Chhattisgarh India 492 004, Raipur, India
Junaid Khan, Department of Pharmacy, Sant Gahira Guru Vishwavidyalaya, Sarguja Ambikapur, Chhattisgarh India 497 001, Ambikapur, India
Paulo Sergio Bernarde, Laboratório de Herpetologia, Centro Multidisciplinar, Campus Floresta, Universidade Federal do Acre, Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil, Cruzeiro do Sul, Acre, Brazil
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.