Imported medicines

It is the parent substance of a group of compounds which includes cytosine, thymine and uracil, which are constituents of nucleic acids and barbituric acid and its derivatives, which are important medicinally. 

Nuts have many uses, both industrial and domestic. For instance, the ivory nut, or tagua, is a source material for the manufacture of buttons and turnery articles. The kola nut supplies ingredients for popular cola beverages in the United States (see Carbonated beverages). StTychnos nux-vomica provides the important medicine and poison, strychnine. The areca or betel nut is chewed by the Indian and Malayan people as a narcotic a slice of the nut is placed in a leaf of the pepper plant Piper betle) together with a pinch of lime the mixture is an acrid, astringent narcotic that dyes the mouth red, blackens and destroys the teeth. The areca nut contains, among other alkaloids, arecoline, an active anthelminthic widely used in veterinary practice for the treatment of tapeworm infections. 

Nepeta (Lamiaceae) is a genus of perennial or annual herbs found in Asia, Europe and North Africa. About 250 species of Nepeta are reported of which, 67 species are present in Iran. Some species of this genus are important medicinal plants and their extracts have been used for medicinal purposes. Aerial parts of Nepeta sintenisii Bornm. was subjected to hydrodistillation and the chemical composition of isolated essential oil has been analyzed by GC/MS method for first time. Identification of components of the volatile oil was based on retention indices relative to n-alkanes and computer matching with the Wiley275.L library, as well as by comparison of the fragmentation patterns of the mass spectra with those reported in the literature. 

Plants produce a vast array of terpenes, alkenes built in multiples of five carbon atoms. Many terpenes have characteristic fragrances. For example, the fresh odor of a pine forest is due to pinene, a ten-carbon molecule with a ring structure and one double bond. The fragrances of terpenes make them important in the flavor and fragrance industry. Limonene, another ten-carbon molecule with a ring and two double bonds, is the principal component of lemon oil. Geraniol, a chainlike molecule with two double bonds, is one of the molecules that is responsible for the fragrance of roses and is used in many perfumes. Many other terpenes have important medicinal properties. 

For thousands of years, humans have used plants to make medicines and dmgs. Many of the biologically active ingredients in plant extracts contain at least one nitrogen atom with a lone pair of electrons, making them weak bases. Such naturally occurring weak bases are classified as alkaloids. Modem pharmaceutical chemists have built upon nature s chemistry by synthesizing new compounds that are important medicines. 

Chamomile has long been one of the very important medicinal plants collected and cultivated in Poland. A comparison of essential oil yields from the four Polish samples indicates the lowest essential oil content, about 0.3%, in the chamomile... 

Simple derivatives of ethane find important medicinal use as inhalation anesthetics. 

Tejesvi MV et ai. Fungal endophyte assemblages from ethnopharmaceutically important medicinal trees, Can JMicrobiol 52 427—435, 2006. 

Much has been said about the application of this heterocyclic system in supramolecular chemistry and in materials chemistry, particularly in the preparation of organic conductors and superconductors. It should not be forgotten however that heterocyclic compounds in general are extremely important medicinal compounds. Although medicinal applications of this heterocyclic system have been rare in the years since CHEC-II(1996), some have been reported. Townsend and co-workers have described the preparation of imidazo[4,5-r/ isothiazole nucleosides 174-177 and have demonstrated their properties as antiproliferative and antiviral analogues of the antibiotic nebularine 172 and the highly cytotoxic 6-methylpurine nucleoside 173 <1997JME771>. 

This statement was made in an environment when the relationship between the MoH and the multinational pharmaceutical industry was already on tenterhooks. The multinational pharmaceutical industry challenged the MoH in the courts of SA for provisions included in the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act that allowed the minister to parallel import medicines and issue compulsory licenses. Since 2001 the tenuous interaction between the multinational pharmaceutical industry and the government concerning the need to establish a means of providing medicines to the public at affordable prices, has opened other exciting debates that deserve attention in this paper. 

The ginseng root is among the most important medicines used in traditional Chinese medicine. Panax ginseng C.A. Meyer, family Araliaceae, has been used in China for more than 2000 years to combat psychophysical tiredness and asthenia. The earliest known mention of ginseng in Europe goes back to 1711 when a Jesuit, Father Jartoux,1 who worked in Chinese missions, sent a letter to the general procurator in Paris, describing this plant, which... 

Potasso-tartrate of Iron—KO, e, Oj, C, H4 0 —is an important medicinal salt.. It is obtained by digesting the hydrated sesquioxide of iron with water, and bitartrate of potassa at. 125° for twenty-four to thirty-six hours, and evaporating the residue on plates. In lustroue scales of dark brown -color. 

In the marine environment, several polyketides with important medicinal value have been reported in recent years. They have been isolated mainly from marine sponges of the genus Caltyspongia and Plakortis, which yielded potent cytotoxic polyketides, e g., callystatin A, Fig. (52) isolated from Callyspongia trunccitci [285,431], and several cyclic polyketides named plakortides, Fig. (53), isolated from Plakortis lita [432] and Plakortis simplex [433],... 

Actually, treating the two related ring systems in one chapter makes sense since in many cases they appear side by side in the same article or in a series of follow-up articles by the same author. There has been considerable activity concerning these two ring systems and this is certainly due to the large medicinal interest in 1,4-oxazepines and 1,4-thiazepines and their benzo derivatives. In this chapter, we have compiled the data abstracted from selected recent publications (since 1995) focusing on aspects of synthesis and reactivity as also has been the case in the previous treatments. The most important medicinal applications are mentioned at the end of the text. 

Baccharis is a large, strictly American genus with approximately 350 species. Only a few are important medicinal plants, and their uses seem to be rather diverse. Some of the principal medicinal species are discussed in the following text ... 

Most Asteraceae are herbs or little shrubs. The trees of the genus Montanoa (tree daisy) therefore stand out as very unusual plants. They also are very showy during the flowering season. But the genus also includes one of the most important medicinal plants of Mexico, Montanoa tomentosa. 

From a drug development perspective, the creation of a universal receptor theory is not important. Medicinal chemists and molecular biologists in a pharmaceutical company must identify which model best tits the intended drug target and allows accurate determination of ligand activity. 

Another important medicinal chemistry-derived hypothesis stemming from these early observations was associated with a comparison of some of the initial aryl external ester compounds, namely 6 and 7 as shown below. 

Important medicinal compounds are made in this way. The antiparasitic metronidazole comes from 2-methyl imidazole by nitration and alkylation with an epoxide in base. 

You have probably heard the term steroid used in the context of athletics. (See Figure 13.25.) Our bodies contain steroids, such as testosterone (a male sex hormone) and estrone (a female sex hormone). Steroids also have important medicinal uses. For example, budesonide is a steroid that is used to treat asthma. One of the most common steroids is cholesterol. This compound is essential to your normal body functions, but it has been linked to blocked artery walls and heart disease, as well. 

The oxide is obtained from the sulfide by roasting it in air. The stable form of arsenic is the gray or metallic form although other forms are known. Yellow arsenic is obtained by cooling the vapor rapidly, and an orthorhombic form is obtained when the vapor is condensed in the presence of mercury. Arsenic is used in the production of a variety of insecticides and herbicides, and in alloys with copper and lead. Some arsenic compounds are important medicinal compounds and a number of pigments contain arsenic compounds. The surface tension of lead is increased by dissolving a small amount of arsenic in it. This allows droplets of molten lead to assume a spherical shape, and this fact is utilized in the production of lead shot. 

Many of today s most important medicines come from obscure plant and animal species. A mold is the source of penicillin, the miracle drug an herb is the source of quinine, a cure for malaria. Scientists are testing countless plant and animal species around the world for sources of cures for major diseases. 

Animal or plant cell cultures are used to produce vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, blood components, and other important medicinal products. The involved mechanisms are biological in nature and are therefore not discussed in detail here. 

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