Prediction of modes of action of components of traditional medicinal preparations

Traditional medicine preparations are used to treat many ailments in multiple regions across the world. Despite their widespread use, the mode of action of these preparations and their constituents are not fully understood. Traditional methods of elucidating the modes of action of these natural products (NPs) can be expensive and time consuming e. g. biochemical methods, bioactivity guided fractionation, etc. In this review, we discuss some methods for the prediction of the modes of action of traditional medicine preparations, both in mixtures and as isolated NPs. These methods are useful to predict targets of NPs before they are experimentally validated. Case studies of the applications of these methods are also provided herein.