L'apport de la théorie des graphes à l'ethnopharmacologie : une modélisation systémique des usages des plantes et de leurs effets thérapeutiques

The contribution of graph theory to ethnopharmacology. Systemic modeling of plant uses and therapeutic effects

Ethnopharmacology is the study of remedies and ingredients used in different traditional medicines in aim to identify new therapeutic solutions. These studies generally consist of identifying and isolating a new main active compound from one medicinal plant. However, several studies show a loss of biological activity between traditional use and isolated compounds, suggesting a more complex therapeutic mechanism. The systemic approach of network pharmacology, based on graph theory, makes possible the study of this theory with the in silico modeling of multiple possible interactions between plant compounds and human proteins. The in silico study of these complex networks can help to spot target and compounds essential to the observed therapeutic activity.