Natural products in medicine

This book has been written primarily for pharmacy undergraduates to provide a modem text to complement lecture courses dealing with pharmacognosy and the use of natural products in medicine. Nevertheless, it should be of value in most other courses where the study of natural products is included, although the examples chosen are predominantly those possessing pharmacological activity. 

Antibacterial natural products in medicinal chemistry 06AG(E)5072. 

Throughout human history, natural products, compounds that are derived from natural sources such as plants, animals, or microorganisms, have played a very important role in health care and prevention of diseases. For example, some of the first records on the use of natural products in medicine were written in cuneiform in Mesopotamia on clay tablets and date to approximately 2600 BC Chinese herb guides document the use of herbaceous plants as far back in time as 2000 BC Egyptians have been found to have documented the uses of various herbs in 1500 BC. 

Marazano and co-workers have used the Zincke reaction extensively to prepare chiral templates for elaboration to substituted piperidine and tetrahydropyridine natural products and medicinal agents. For example, 3-picoline was converted to Zincke salt 40 by reaction with 2,4-dinitrochlorobenzene in refluxing acetone, and treatment with R- -)-phenylglycinol in refluxing n-butanol generated the chiral pyridinium 77. Reduction to... 

First among the aminoglycosides was streptomycin, one of several antibiotics isolated from Streptomyces species by Selman Waksman—this from S. griseus in 1944. Waksman proved to be an enormously effective seeker of antibiotics in natural products. In addition to streptomycin, he discovered neomycin, another widely used antibiotic. Less important discoveries include actinomycin, clavacin, streptothricin, grisein, fradicin, and candidin. Waksman received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1952. 

The use of natural products as medicine has invoked the isolation of active compounds the first commercial pure natural product introduced for therapeutic use is generally considered to be the narcotic morphine (1), marketed by Merck in 1826, and the first semi-synthetic pure dmg aspirin (2), based on a natural product salicin (3) isolated from Salix alba, was introduced by Bayer in 1899. This success subsequently led to the isolation of early dmgs such as cocaine, codeine, digitoxin (4), quinine (5), and pilocarpine (6), of which some are still in use. ... 

Mother Nature still continues to be a resource of novel chemotypes and pharmacophores, and an impressive number of modem drugs have been isolated from natural sources, many based on their uses in traditional medicine systems. " To a large extent, the use of natural products in drug design represents the natural evolution of this old tradition. It has been extensively documented that the traditional medicine systems of many cultures worldwide are based on plants,for example in countries like China and India where plants have formed the basis for traditional systems of medicines. According to Kim and Park, natural... 

Balandrin MF, Kinghorn AD, Farnsworth NR, Plant-derived natural products in drug discovery An overview, in Kinghorn AD, Balandrin MF, eds., Human Medicinal Agents from Plants, Symposium Series No. 534, American Ghemical Society Books, Washington, DC, pp. 2—12, 1993. 

Baka, J.T. Wells, R.J. (1980) Biologically active substances from Australian marine organisms. In Natural Products as Medicinal Agents, Beal, J.L. Reinhard, E., eds., Hippokrates Valag, Stuttgart, pp. 281-318. 

Because vicinal diamines and 2-aminoalcohols are important components of natural products and medicinal agents, and used as ligands for metal-catalyzed reactions, especially in asymmetric synthesis, efficient methods for the compounds have been extensively investigated over the past decade. " ... 

In synthesizing the natural product in the laboratory, the chemist is able to create closely related compounds that may have even greater medicinal properties. Also, synthesizing a natural product can be advantageous when the source of the natural product is rare and thus not readily available. 

Wagner, H. In Natural Products as Medicinal Agents Beal JL and Reinhard Ed, Hippoktrates Stuttgart 1989, pp 217-239. 

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