From the prehistoric time man has always struggle to fight and control
diseases and motivated to nature for inspiration and guidance. During thousands of
years of early human existence, number of natural materials by instinct or intuition has
been used as folk medicines for human ailments. This brought to the forefront a large
number of herbs used in Indian indigenous system for their approved efficiency and
administration in modern medicines. Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)
caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is an immuno-suppressive disease
that results in life-threatening opportunistic infections and malignancies. Now, there is
an urgent need for novel anti-HIV/AIDS drugs for global concern. In addition to
obvious economical and commercial obstacles, HIV/AIDS patients are faced with
varied difficulties associated with the currently approved anti-HIV drugs. The
therapeutic usefulness of the various reverse transcriptase and protease inhibitors
available in the market have been limited due to its adverse effect, emerging drug
resistance and low activity. This encourages many scientists to look for new antiretrovirals
with better efficacy, safety and affordability. Several natural products
isolated from plants have been shown to possess promising activities that could assist
in the prevention and/or amelioration of the disease. Biodiversity of the plant kingdom
has always been a source of new drug candidates for various diseases. The appearance
of drug resistant virus urged the scientists to explore new anti-HIV agents and targets.
In this regard, natural products embody a treasure-trove of anti-HIV drugs waiting to
be explored by all the modern techniques. Numerous natural product based anti-HIV
drugs such as Robustaflavone, Chamaeflavone A, Longipedunins A, Binankadsurin A,
Schisanlactone A, Anibamine, Altertoxine, Betulinic acid, Baicalin, Hinokiflavone,
etc., have been reported in the literature which possess promising anti-HIV activity.
This chapter embodies the recent progress that has been accomplished in the discovery
of promising anti-HIV agents from natural sources.
Keywords: Anti-HIV/AIDS, CD4 cells, Drugs, HIV-1, HIV-2, Medicinal plants,
Natural products, Protease inhibitors, RTase inhibitors, Treasure-trove.
