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 medicinal values and other uses. Indigenous tribes of South America were using Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni for centuries for its medicinal value. Leaves of stevia produce diterpene glycosides (Stevioside and Rebaudiosides), non-nutritive, non-toxic, high-potency sweeteners. The traditional medicinal system is getting more and more appreciation nowadays, but the therapeutic targets for most of these medicines remain unclear, which slows down the novel drug discovery from these natural products. Computational molecular docking studies are effective tools, which are broadly utilized to identify therapeutic targets and interpret molecular aspects of the ligand-protein interactions during drug discovery. Thus, it also enables 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 pharmacological activities of steviol glycoside isolated from Stevia rebaudiana. In this article, the recently published papers about Stevia rebaudiana were reviewed, using scientific sites such as Mendeley, PubMed and Google Scholar.