Neetika Sharma and Debabrata Sircar
Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, India

Part of the book: The Essential Guide to Alkaloids

Abstract

Plants are a rich source of several bioactive metabolites which finds multi-purpose use in the prevention and cure of human diseases. Bioactive natural products with medicinal value are gradually gaining importance in clinical research due to their well-known property of affordable cost and fewer side effects as compared to drugs. Tinospora cordifolia popularly known as named as “Guduchi” or “Giloy” is well known for its efficacy in treating various human diseases in the traditional medicine system. The biological activity of this plant extract comes from its chemical constituents including Alkaloids, Phenolics, Terpenes, Steroids and Lignans. Alkaloids are the predominant bioactive constituents of this plant. In this chapter, we focus on alkaloids derived from the Tinospora cordifolia, their structure and function and biosynthesis. Our present study in this chapter encompasses (i) the importance of herbal medicine (ii) general introduction of alkaloids, (iii) major alkaloids reported from Tinospora cordifolia and their biological role in disease targeting (iv) large-scale production of alkaloids using in vitro cultures and elicitor-treatment. The conclusion and future scope of the chapter remain in exploiting the metabolic engineering strategy for enhanced alkaloid production from Tinospora cordifolia

Keywords: medicinal plants, cell culture, plant-derived drugs, traditional medicine, Giloy

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