Descripción: |
The increase in noncommunicable and emerging diseases has generated a rise in the use and consumption of medicinal plants for therapeutic or preventive purposes. Medicinal plants have been used in traditional medicine for their positive impact on human health, due to their active compounds having various biologics activities, and their secondary metabolites protect against free radical attacks and decrease oxidative stress. There are several studies showing the beneficial effects of a particular plant species, but in traditional medicine, the combination of various plant species provides better biological effects due to the synergistic effect. Therefore, in this article, a review of scientific studies related to the synergy of the combination of plants was carried out, including extracts/extracts, essential oils/essential oil, antioxidants/drugs, among others. A comprehensive literature search was conducted with keywords in databases (Science Direct, Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed, Scielo, and Spring Link). The results of different investigations suggest that the interaction between bioactive compounds in plants increases biological activities such as cardiovascular, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anticancer, among others. In addition, it discusses the considerations or limitations of synergistic studies, such as interaction with other molecules and factors that influence synergistic effects and may decrease their biological properties. In conclusion, synergy could contribute to different industrial applications, as in the pharmaceutical for the development of drugs or in medicine for the design of alternative therapies.
Keywords: plants, synergy, biological activity.
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