Natural products as drugs

In China in 500 b.c., moldy soybeans—the first antibiotic—were 

Many medicines that we now use and often take for granted were based on the healing properties of plants and other natural sources known to traditional healers. Aspirin, or acetylsalicylic acid, is a chemically modified form of salicylic acid, a chemical extracted in the early 19 century from willow tree bark, which had been known for centuries to reduce fevers. Today, aspirin is chemically 

The modern pharmaceutical industry began in Europe when researchers developed methods to isolate and determine the structure of complex chemicals from natural sources, and to build these compounds from inexpensive and readily available starting materials. Soon, industrial chemists were isolating many useful chemicals from coal tar, a by-product of the industrial use of coal for fuel, and developing methods to make many new products, including textile dyes, from scratch. 

Does describing a drug as natural mean it is safe to use Provide some examples. 

The NCI scientists discovered that extracts of the bark and needles of a yew tree, Taxus brevifolia of the Pacific Northwest, killed trunor cells. Fresh samples were obtained from the forests in the state of Washington in August 1962. Paclitaxel was first isolated from yew tree extract in 1967, and retested on cells in the laboratory. After it was found to be effective in tests on animals with tmnors, paclitaxel was studied in a large munber of human cancer patients and finally approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1992 for use in treating cancer in people. 

---

Paterson 1, Anderson EA. (2005) The renaissance of natural products as drug candidates. Science 310 451 53. 

Haefner B. (2003) Drugs from the deep Marine natural products as drug candidates. Drug Discov Today 8 536-544. 

Over the past few decades, the use of natural products as drugs and dietary supplements has raised an increasingly important question What impact does it have on biodiversity The widespread popularity of some natural products has resulted in their rapid destruction in the environment. One of the best-documented examples of this pattern is the decimation of wild echinacea resources throughout the United States. Sales of the plant in 2002 amounted to more than 32 million, and manufacturers are eager to obtain as much as they can from American sources. As a result, the plant is rapidly being depleted from its natural habitat, which ranges across large parts of the Midwest. 

The use of natural products as drugs among some people remains as popular today as it has for centuries in spite of considerable uncertainty as to the efficacy and, in some cases, the safety of such chemicals. Researchers continue to explore the mechanisms by which such chemicals work, their effectiveness in combating certain diseases, and the possibilities of developing analogs that maybe both more effective and safer for use in treating human diseases. 

Natural Products as Drugs and Leads to Drugs The Historical Perspective ... 

Zhu XZ. Development of natural products as drugs acting on central nervous system. Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz 1991 86(Suppl 2) 173-5. 

V. Future Directions in Natural Products as Drugs and Drug Design Templates... 

V. FUTURE DIRECTIONS IN NATURAL PRODUCTS AS DRUGS AND DRUG DESIGN TEMPLATES... 

Newman, D., Cragg, G. (2007). Natural products as drug over the past 25 years. 

The examples given above are simply a selection of the natural products and natural product analogs that have, in general, entered clinical use. There are recent reviews that cover natural products as drugs and sources of structures " and these should be consulted for further examples of where natural products have led to novel drugs in a multiplicity of diseases. 

---