A bird's eye view on a therapeutically ‘wonder molecule’: Berberine

Abstract

Berberine is a quaternary ammonium salt and naturally occurring benzylisoquinoline alkaloid, present in numerous medicinal herbs’ roots and stem bark as an active constituent, especially in the genus Berberis. It contains many pharmacological properties such as antioxidant, antiviral, antidiabetic, antidepressant, antidiarrheal, antibacterial any many more. Since nature is the best healer, it has been traditionally used in Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine to mitigate several disease conditions. Besides the beneficial effects of berberine, some drawbacks such as its poor aqueous solubility and low oral bioavailability hinder its applications. Although it has been used for dietary supplements, despite its vast potential to evolve as a drug candidate, there are no approved pure berberine formulations available in market for any particular disease. Therefore, this review provides an overview to the reader by incorporating recent studies on berberine's sources, extraction techniques, chemistry, different Nano carriers and bioavailability enhancers for enhancing bioavailability, versatile applications, toxicological aspects and recent patents along with future perspectives. The accumulated evidence may broaden the horizon of drug designers, scientists, academicians, and researchers on berberine and help design and develop effective berberine formulations on a large scale for treating several diseases.

Keywords

• Berberine
• Chemistry
• Applications
• Bioavailability
• Toxicity