ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Identification and Modelling of the Connection Between the Taxonomic Position and Traditional Medical Applications of Plant Species in Prophylaxis and Treatment Of Virus Diseases

A study is made of the distribution of 674 species of flowering plants in the phylogenetic system according to the specific applications of their active materials in traditional medicine in the prophylaxis or treatment of 21 virus diseases of humans and animals. The analysis revealed statistically reliable connections between the particular applications and the taxonomic position of plant species at the level of a family or a subclass, and connections between virus diseases according to the similarity of the sets of plant species that were used in their prophylaxis or treatment. We suggest the model correlating the taxonomic position with medical applications of plant species. We identified 62 plant species holding the greatest promise as regards the detection, further investigation and antiviral activity.

These virus diseases at study are divided into 7 groups such as smallpox, rabies, respiratory infection, jaundice, warts, measles and others. Class Magnoliopsida is superior to class Liliopsida in occurrence of species used in various viral infections. The proportion of these species is most large in evolutionarily later subclasses out of class Magnoliopsida. The families from division Magnoliophyta have reliably increased occurrence of species used at least against one group of diseases such as Ranunculaceae (measles, smallpox), Fumariaceae (jaundice), Euphorbiaceae (rabies, warts), Tamaricaceae (jaundice), Malvaceae (respiratory infection), Dipsacaceae (respiratory infection), Sambucacea (rabies), Viburnaceae (respiratory infection), Trapaceae (rabies), Gentianaceae (rabies, jaundice), Solanaceae (respiratory infection, jaundice, rabies), Cuscutaceae (rabies), Lamiaceae (respiratory infection), Asteraceae (jaundice), Alismataceae (rabies).

Closely related families are often similar on sets of infections in which species of these families are applied. Viral diseases are reliably interconnected with similarity of sets of plant species used in the prophylaxis or treatment. Particularly strong connections are "respiratory infections-jaundice", "respiratory infections–rabies", "measles–smallpox". The 62 plant species are recognized as the most promising for discovery, further study and use of their antiviral activity accounting established relations "family – disease" and "disease – disease ".

The taxonomic status of plant species is associated with their medical applications using mathematical model. The model is constructed as the equations of the theory of reliability (effectiveness). It describes the changing the frequency of the usage of plant species along the parameter of level of evolutionary development of taxons on rank of subclass. The data on the frequency of application demonstrate good correlation with calculated values (R² = 0.91) what allows to use the equations for forecasting and valuation.