ConMedNP: a natural product library from Central African medicinal plants for drug discovery

Abstract

We assess the medicinal value and “drug-likeness” of ∼3200 compounds of natural origin, along with some of their derivatives which were obtained through hemisynthesis. In the present study, 376 distinct medicinal plant species belonging to 79 plant families from the Central African flora have been considered, based on data retrieved from literature sources. For each compound, the optimised 3D structure has been used to calculate physicochemical properties which determine oral availability on the basis of Lipinski's “Rule of Five”. A comparative analysis has been carried out with the “drug-like”, “lead-like”, and “fragment-like” subsets, containing respectively 1726, 738 and 155 compounds, as well as with our smaller previously published CamMedNP library and the Dictionary of Natural products. A diversity analysis has been carried out in comparison with the DIVERSet™ Database (containing 48 651 compounds) from ChemBridge. Our results prove that drug discovery, beginning with natural products from the Central African flora, could be promising. The 3D structures are available and could be useful for virtual screening and natural product lead generation programs.