Overview of Chemicals Fighting Diseases

There are no diagnostic questions for this unit as most of the material will be new to the reader. 

The same sources of medicine are available to us today as were available, even to ancient civilizations. They is the wide array of chemicals found in plants. Witch doctors, medicine men and old wives proved to be very perceptive in knowing which plants to select for which complaint. 

What is the potent poison speared on arrow heads used by South American natives when hunting Analysis of the materials shows it is curare. This has muscle relaxant and neuromuscular blocking effects. These properties have been used in modern medicine and surgery. 

Chemistry An Introduction for Medical and Health Sciences, A. Jones 2005 John Wiley Sons, Ltd 

In 1785 William Withering showed that an extract from foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) was beneficial for treating people with heart problems. The majority of cures for disease in our present society have come from nature either by extracting the active components from the plants or by mimicking them using chemical synthesis. Both of these are very fruitful areas of research.1 

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