Challenges in integrating component level technology and system level information from Ayurveda: Insights from NMR phytometabolomics and anti-HIV potential of select Ayurvedic medicinal plants

BACKGROUND: Information from Ayurveda meeting the analytical challenges of modern technology is an area of immense relevance. Apart from the cerebral task of bringing together two different viewpoints, the question at the pragmatic level remains ‘who benefits whom’. OBJECTIVE: The aim is to highlight the challenges in integration of information (Ayurvedic) and technology using test examples of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) metabolomics and anti-HIV-1 potential of select Ayurvedic medicinal plants. The other value added objective is implications and relevance of such work for Ayurveda. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Six medicinal plants (Azadirachta indica, Tinospora cordifolia, Swertia chirata, Terminalia bellerica, Zingiber officinale and Symplocos racemosa) were studied using high resolution proton NMR spectroscopy based metabolomics and also evaluated for anti-HIV-1 activity on three pseudoviruses (ZM53 M.PB12, ZM109F.PB4, RHPA 4259.7). RESULTS: Of the six plants, T. bellerica and Z. officinale showed minimum cell cytotoxicity and maximum anti-HIV-1 potential. T. bellerica was effective against all the three HIV-1 pseudoviruses. Untargeted NMR profiling and multivariate analyses demonstrated that the six plants, all of which had different Ayurvedic pharmacological properties, showed maximum differences in the aromatic region of the spectra. CONCLUSION: The work adds onto the list of potential plants for anti-HIV-1 drug molecules. At the same time, it has drawn attention to the different perspectives of Ayurveda and Western medicine underscoring the inherent limitations of conceptual bilinguism between the two systems, especially in the context of medicinal plants. The study has also highlighted the potential of NMR metabolomics in study of plant extracts as used in Ayurveda.