Plant diversity repertoire of bioactive triterpenoids.

Pharmaceutical biology perceives medicinal plants as a rich source of bioactive compounds bearing biological activities which can be traced back to the dawn of life. Plants form one of the most abundant and diverse living systems in nature. Improved scientific knowledge in plant biology has led scientific communities to gain in-depth knowledge of plants and their metabolites by screening and characterization of novel phytochemicals with innumerable valuable roles, which has had a huge impact on all human life. Owing to this, research on plant-based natural products has generated tremendous interest with numerous studies highlighting new secondary metabolites of plant origin. Among these secondary metabolites in plants, triterpenoids form a prominent group of bioactive compounds, widely distributed among diverse plants species. Triterpenoids have myriad biological activities, including antioxidative, antimutagenic, anticancer, antidiabetic, antiinflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antimalarial, immunomodulatory and many more. Triterpenoids are highly multifunctional and have great chemical diversity; their potential anti-therapeutic agents could be exploited for various biological activities. This chapter explores the valuable scientific literature pertaining to triterpenoids.