Ayurvedic Medicinal Plants and Plant-Derived Extracellular Vesicles: Current Evidence and Future Perspectives

Plant-derived extracellular vesicles (PDEVs) are nanoscale carriers produced through conserved plant mechanisms, including multivesicular body (MVB) formation and consequent extracellular vesicle release. MVBs are formed through repeated rounds of intracellular vesicles' fusion, thus leading to the incorporation into PDEVs of lipids, proteins, miRNAs, nucleic acids, and secondary metabolites, derived from different cellular compartments. PDEVs possess a bilayer lipid membrane, which protects their cargo from degradation and facilitates membrane-membrane fusion with target cells. Ayurvedic medicinal plants are renowned for their extensive phytochemical diversity and enduring efficacy in addressing inflammation, infections, metabolic disorders, cancer, and neurodegeneration. However, the clinical translation of traditional herbal preparation is severely bottlenecked by batch-to-batch variability, restricted compound bioavailability, mechanistic uncertainties, and limitations of conventional large-scale extractions. This perspective research study critically proposes PDEVs as an innovative interpretation for Ayurvedic medicinal plants utilization. We identify and evaluate medicinal plants with established therapeutic characteristics that remain unexamined in PDEV research, hence presenting compelling opportunities for future investigation. By establishing a synergistic bridge between ancient Ayurvedic knowledge and modern nanomedicine, this perspective provides a methodological roadmap to guide health-efficient plant selection and accelerate translational research in next-generation therapeutics.