Snake Venom Antidote Using Plants: The Review

  • Dr Mohd Irfan

Abstract

Death & morbidity due to snake bite is due to the improper storage, usage and lack of specificity of the snake antidote. The snake venom is composed of serine proteases (SVSP), phospholipase A2 (PLA2), metallo-proteases (SVMP) & L-amino acid oxidases. Snake envenomation treatments involves intravenous administration of snake anti-venoms or snake venom anti-dote which are antibodies isolated from the plasma of a large mammal like horse that had been previously immunised with non-lethal doses of snake venom. These antibodies then bind to and neutralized the snake venom. However, being foreign proteins they can cause fatal hypersensitivity reactions. In view of these disadvantages, this review has tried to show case information about the anti-snake venom activity of plants. Various phytomolecules of plants exhibit snake anti-venom properties by directly binding with the proteins present in the snake venom, inhibiting the enzymatic activity of metallo-protease, PLA. However, to make it a viable mode of treatment, pharma industry must isolate, characterize and check the efficacy of such phyto-molecules in a clinical setting.