An Integrated Approach to Recognize Potential Protective Effects of Culinary Herbs Against Chronic Diseases

Secondary metabolites in plants have been of interest to humans for their wide variety of functions, including its use as dye, drugs, or perfumes. They are increasingly recognized as potential sources of new natural drugs and antibiotics. More recently, gut-associated microbes have been found to fulfill important functions in human health. However, our knowledge about the impact of secondary metabolites from culinary herbs on gut microbiome is limited. The present study was conducted to access the availability of computational resources relating to secondary metabolites and bioactive compounds in culinary herbs. A graph-based database HerbMicrobeDataBase (HMDB) was developed using Neo4j framework. It integrates knowledge from key biological entities associated in maintaining gut health and provides efficient storage/retrieval and graphical presentation of botanical, biochemical, and pharmacological data for culinary herbs and the human microbiome. We demonstrate the utility of this resource in understanding the molecular mechanism of metabolite production as well as their therapeutic or toxicological effects on gut microbes.