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Medchem & Toxicology 2018
Page 69
Journal of Organic & Inorganic Chemistry
ISSN: 2472-1123
A n n u a l C o n g r e s s o n
Medicinal Chemistry,
Pharmacology and toxicology
J u l y 3 0 - 3 1 , 2 0 1 8
Am s t e r d a m , N e t h e r l a n d s
P
lants are the source of food for human life, as they provide energy and nutrition essential for growth and sustainability of
the individual. The plants can also act as source of pharmaceutics which helps to overcome deficiency or disorders, when
administered because of presence of active ingredients with medicinal value. Apart from natural occurrence of pharmaceutically
important compounds in plants, the enhanced production can also be engineered for native or artificially designed compounds. The
consumer can intake food material with enhanced quantity of pharma compound or the plant material can be processed to extract
these compounds commercially, ultimately turning ‘plants as factories’ of producing pharmaceutical compounds. ‘Molecular
ph(f)arming’ envisages production of proteins or other metabolites or compounds which are of value to medicine and industry in
sufficient quantity through plants generally used in agricultural systems. The production can be through transformation of desired
gene into the plants and assessing its expression and production of compounds. Many novel technologies are also available as
and when candidate genes in plants were identified which are responsible for production of these compounds which can be
altered through Genome Editing technologies like CRISPR-Cas9 (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats-
CRISPR associated protein 9) or Base edition. This will help in enhanced production of desired compounds in plants with desired
quantities. The engineered plants can be grown under controlled conditions such as glass house or vertical farming to obtain
desired compounds in required quantities. This will also help in obtaining pharmaceutical and industrial compounds organically,
which minimises harmful effects of factories under environmentally sustainable conditions. The plant based vaccines are being
tested in potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, bananas and carrots. The plants can also produce large quantities of amylase or
other enzymes to meet industrial requirement. The associated risks are also there as purity of the compound and processing
technologies to isolate the compounds and quality testing, since these are being administered as medicine/ supplements to
humans. The research work is on the way for identification of rice genotypes having high Fe and Zn content which is important
from human nutrition, low glycemic index genotypes with slow starch hydrolysis which is relevant for diabetic patients along
with GABA (Gamma Amino Butyric Acid) in germinated brown rice, which is important for enhancing immune system in humans.
These are helpful in obtaining value added products useful to human health.
diwan@rediffmail.com jrdiwan@uasraichur.edu.inMolecular ph(f)arming: production of pharmaceutical
compounds in plants
Jayateertha Diwan
1
, R Lokesh
1
, P M Salimath
1
and
Vinay Shenoy
2
1
University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur, Karnataka, India
2
Barwale Foundation, Hyderabad, India
J Org Inorg Chem 2018, Volume 4
DOI: 10.21767/2472-1123-C3-009