A Mini-Review on Molecular Docking Studies and Pharmacological Activities of Stevia rebaudiana

Stevia is a small perennial shrub belonging to the Astraceae family with approximately 240 species,which has been used as a natural sweetener. In addition to its sweetening property, it has medicinalvalues and other uses. Indigenous tribes of South America were using Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni forcenturies for its medicinal value. Leaves of stevia produce diterpene glycosides (Stevioside andRebaudiosides), non-nutritive, non-toxic, high-potency sweeteners. The traditional medicinal systemis getting more and more appreciation nowadays, but the therapeutic targets for most of these medicinesremain unclear, which slows down the novel drug discovery from these natural products. Computationalmolecular docking studies are effective tools, which are broadly utilized to identify therapeutic targetsand interpret molecular aspects of the ligand-protein interactions during drug discovery. Thus, it alsoenables the extraordinary structural diversity of natural products to be harnessed in an effective manner.The aim of this article is to present a review on the molecular docking studies and pharmacologicalactivities of steviol glycoside isolated from Stevia rebaudiana. In this article, the recently publishedpapers about Stevia rebaudiana were reviewed, using scientific sites such as Mendeley, PubMed andGoogle Scholar.