Chemical diversity and activity profiles of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibitors from plants

Abstract Current challenges to antiretroviral therapy have opened new vistas in the search for novel drugs from natural products. This review focusses on plants as sources of inhibitors for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) reverse transcriptase. Based on a systematic search of the literature, anti-HIV-1 reverse transcriptase activity was recorded for 132 plant species in 100 genera and 51 families. Seven families comprise 52.6% of plant species with anti-reverse transcriptase activity: Lamiaceae (13.7%), Fabaceae (10.7%), Euphorbiaceae (9.9%), Clusiaceae (6.1%), Asteraceae (4.6%), C...