Therapeutic effects of Cucumis metuliferus fruits on avian viruses

Poverty is the major restraint of people to modern medicine in the developing world. This brought about therapeutic usage of medicinal plants which can be traced back to history as different cultures utilize plants and plant products from ancient time for preventing and treating of diseases. These People in the developing countries or rural areas solely depend on traditional medicine for their primary health care, in which they majorly use plants or their active principles. Upsurge resistance of avian viruses to commercial drugs is both developed and developing countries problem which imposed a search for new avian antiviral substances from other sources like medicinal plants. This led to the discovery of Cucumis metuliferus E. Mey. ex Naudin fruit which has been verified by local farmers and scientific researchers to cure various diseases and conditions including avian viruses like Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV), Infectious Bursal Disease Virus (IBDV), avian influenza and Hepatitis B Virus. This review is aimed at revealing the avian virus diseases that are treated with the Cucumis metuliferus E. Mey. ex Naudin, fruit and phytochemical constituents responsible for this antiviral activities.