ABSTRACT
The variety of species that the animal kingdom provides has remarkably helped in the advancement of scientific investigations, leading to landbreaking discoveries that have made life better for the world inhabitants. In the process of drug discovery, the use of animal models is an inevitability; they provide the needed platform that will help reveal, to a large extent, the physiological functions of phytochemical compounds. In this chapter, we review the various animal methods commonly used in evaluating candidate drugs from phytochemicals, the method of obtaining the models and the different disease conditions successfully modeled. Special attention is given to Drosophila melanogaster. We give an introduction to the biology of this model organism and an overview to its use to model human diseases and 428plagues. We describe the general process of using Drosophila in phytopharmacology studies and provide a compilation of resources that will help anyone wishing to utilize this organism.
