[13–17].
Therefore, as part of our continuing efforts into finding suitable
leads for useful drugs from plants, we hypothesised the
possible discovery of HCV protease interactive and, hence,
possible inhibitor tannins from the exploration of the tannin
chemical space of the genus Terminalia. The current study was
focused on isolating tannins from methanolic extracts of the
ethnomedicinally used fruit flesh and kernel parts of Terminalia
chebula, and subjecting the isolates to HCV NS3/4A protease
inhibition investigations,with a view to providing leads for the development of small molecule HCPIs. We herein report the
identification and HCV protease inhibitory activities of 10
isolates (comprising two hydrolysable tannin-related compounds
and eight hydrolysable tannins, including two new
isomeric gallotannins) ensuing from these investigations
(Fig. 1).