The early years of the 21st century appeared opportune for renewed efforts to be made in regard to the discovery of new SMs and prototype biologically active compounds from animals, fungi, microorganisms and plants of both terrestrial and marine origin. Despite huge investments in combinatorial chemistry and natural product drug discovery, there have been disappointing…
On occasion, a natural product lead compound may help elucidate a new mechanism of interaction with a biological target for a disease state under investigation. Natural products may serve to provide molecular inspiration in certain therapeutic areas for which there are only a limited number of synthetic lead compounds. Thus natural product research can make…
In the era of drug design by chemical synthesis aided by computational and combinatorial techniques, emphasis on the screening of natural products for new drugs by pharmaceutical companies decreased with greater reliance being placed on screening large ‘libraries’ or collections of synthetic compounds. Natural product extracts have been regarded by some as being incompatible with…
Today natural products and their derivatives represent about 50% of all drugs in clinical use with higher plant-derived natural products representing approximately 25% of the total. In a review article, Newman et al from the National Cancer Institute pointed out that from 1982 to 2002, approximately 28% of the new chemical entities in western medicine…
It is to be noted that except for inorganic salts and a few low molecular organic substances, the majority of molecules in living systems—both in plants and animals are chiral. Although these molecules can exist as a number of stereoisomers, almost invariably only one stereoisomer is found in nature. Thus nature is inherently chiral with…
Plant-derived organic compounds may be classified as either primary or secondary metabolites (SMs). Macromolecules such as structural and functional proteins and informational biopolymers such as nucleic acids are generally excluded from this classification. Primary metabolites (PMs) are widely distributed in virtually all organisms in different forms for storage and are also needed for general growth…
Concurrent with the resurgence of interest in herb-based therapies and drugs, research efforts centred on plant drugs the past half century offer interesting insights into their uniqueness. A look at these shall help us understand better the factors that culminated in the renewed interest towards plant-derived drugs. Higher plants are solar-powered biochemical factories which manufacture…
Though science has been a fantastic tool for developing conveniences in our life it is threatening the very existence of this planet. On retrospection it becomes sufficiently clear that scientific progress-enabled modern medical achievements are largely the result of a ‘one-sided’ approach to nature and its ways. When we look at the epistemological basis of…
Before 1900 most drugs in orthodox medicine too were plant-derived pure chemicals as against unprocessed plant-based formulations and preparations in other traditional medical streams. Pharmacists dominated the investigation of botanical drugs during the 1700s and 1800s. Interested physicians, pharmacists documented the sources of different plant drugs, making considerable contribution to the nascent science of botany. Combining…
The second millennium in Europe however saw the beginning of a slow erosion of the preeminent position held by plants as sources of therapeutic effects. This began with the ‘Black death’ due to plague and syphilis that raged through Europe, which the then dominant Four Element (referring to the four humors) medical system seemed powerless…