Application of Bioinformatics Tools in Validation of an In-vivo Research on Plant Extracts

Introduction: In the current trend of information technology, where numerous applications and brands are developing each day in different sectors, immense expansion in the area with huge potential has led to a boom in this sector.1 Its application in the field of biological research as bioinformatics has led to the development of various research databases, softwares and weblinks. This has created a new vision in the minds of biologists and scientists to approach in an improved manner to fill the gaps between discovered and undiscovered. The use of bioinformatics based applications has also helped the researchers in identifying the validity of a research.

Objective: The present study involves the use of bioinformatics database and tools to validate the results of an in-vivo research on natural plant extracts like estradiol, alkaloids etc. The extracts consist of functional groups that make them suitable to bind to specific proteins in the human body.

Methodology: The protein sequences were retrieved using a database called National Centre for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). This database has a specific tool- FASTA which can retrieve protein sequences present in the nature. The binding of plant extracts to this sequence was analyzed using STITCH database. Results- It was found that the extract estradiol could bind to the identified protein sequence. This result was obtained within fraction of seconds.

Conclusion: The application of tools in bioinformatics has not only decreased the manmade errors but also reduced the time in result validation and analysis.