Exploring the anti-aging potential of natural products and plant extracts in budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae: A review

Aging is an inevitable multifactorial process associated with a decline in physiological functioning accompanied by a predisposition to a plethora of chronic ailments. Emerging anti-aging research studies using different model organisms have enabled scientists to uncover underlying molecular mechanisms of aging. Notably, the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been, and continues to be an indispensable model organism in the field of biomedical research for discovering the molecular causes of aging as well as the anti-aging potential of natural/synthetic compounds and plant extracts. Besides its ease of handling, genetic manipulation, and relatively inexpensive to grow, the budding yeast has preserved nutritional signaling pathways (such as the target of rapamycin (TOR)-Sch9 and the Ras-AC-PKA (cAMP-dependent protein kinase pathways) and two distinct aging paradigms such as chronological life span (CLS) and replicative life span (RLS). In the present review, we have explored the anti-aging properties of several natural products and phytoextracts and their underlying molecular mechanism of action on the CLS and RLS of yeast S. cerevisiae.