Pharmaceuticals from plants

Editorial. Pharmaceuticals from plants great potential, few funds. Eancet 1994 343 1513-1515. 

Table 6.1 Important pharmaceuticals from plant resources (adapted from ref. 8 and 9).

Uses. The principal uses of NaBH are ia synthesis of pharmaceuticals (qv) and fine organic chemicals removal of trace impurities from bulk organic chemicals wood-pulp bleaching, clay leaching, and vat-dye reductions and removal and recovery of trace metals from plant effluents. 

The US. Pharmacopeia (USP XXII) or National Formula (NFXVII) (20) also provide a similar description however, the peroxide value is not defined (Table 9). These specifications are also given in the Handbook of Pharmaceutical Excipients (HPE), pubhshed jointiy by the American Pharmaceutical Association and The Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (21), which defines lecithins both from plants and eggs. The Merck Index (22) specifies a slightiy lower acid value. The Japanese Monograph (ISCI-II) (23) specifies a slightiy lower acetone-insoluble matter and a lower heavy-metal content. 

The hundreds of different pharmaceutical agents approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration come from many sources (see the Chapter 5 Focus On). Many drugs are isolated directly from plants or bacteria, and others are made by chemical modification of naturally occurring compounds, but an... 

Substituted 1-hydroxy cyclohexane-1-carboxyhc acids, which could be prepared from the corresponding cyanohydrins by acid hydrolysis as described above, are important as pharmaceuticals and plant-protective agents. Although the compounds derived from 2- and 3-cyclohexanones have two stereogenic centers, stereoselective syntheses of these interesting products have been published only very recently. " Completely unexpected are the results of HNL-catalyzed additions to 4-substituted cyclohexanones, which do not possess a prochiral center. The (R)-PaHNL-catalyzed addition affords almost exclusively fran -isomers, whereas with (5 )-MeHNL cA-addition is favored (Table 4). ... 

According to Julsing et al. [2], alkaloids can be classified in terms of their biological activities, their chemical structures, or their biosynthetic pathways [2]. Over 12 000 alkaloids are known so far from plants, and several of these are being used medicinally in the global pharmaceutical market worth 4 billion US dollars [2]. 

Altogether 139 tropane alkaloids sensu stricto) have been isolated from different plant sources. The intensity of the search for new tropane alkaloids can be expected to continue. Although chemical syntheses have been developed for the basic tropane alkaloids, most of the pharmaceutically important alkaloids are more economically obtained in an industrial scale by extraction from plant material. This will probably be true in the immediate future as well. 

The facility considered in the industrial case study is a pharmaceuticals production plant, which produces a wide variety of consumer products, e.g. shampoos and creams, and female sanitary products. The plant was chosen due to the fact that production was carried out in batch mode. In a year the plant uses on average 90000 m3 of water, with approximately 60-70% of this discarded as effluent. An on-site treatment facility pre-treats wastewater produced from the site to a level where the water can be discharged into the municipal water system. 

Stoger, E., Ma, J.K., Fischer, R. and Christou, P. (2005) Sowing the seeds of success pharmaceutical proteins from plants. Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 16 (2), 167-173. 

Current Strategies to Eliminate Immunogenic N-glycans from Plant-made Pharmaceuticals... 

By definition, a nutraceutical (derived from the term nutritional pharmaceutical ) is a foodstuff (fortified food or dietary supplement) that is held to provide health or medical benefits in addition to its basic nutritional value [1], Nutraceuticals derived from botanicals deliver a concentrated form of presumed bioactive agents from plants that are not generally part of the food supply. The term nutraceutical has no regulatory definition. Similarly, functional foods, as defined by the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), are foods that by virtue of physiologically active food components, provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition [2], For the purposes of this review, these two terms will be differentiated by the form in which they are consumed. Nutraceuticals refers to dietary supplements most often found in pill or capsule form functional foods are ingested as part of a normal food pattern. Both are intended to provide beneficial effects beyond their nutritional value, and contribute to an improved state of health and/or reduction of risk of disease. 

Coincidental with the above developments, biomedical scientists in pharmaceutical companies were actively pursuing purified extracts and pure compounds derived from plants and animal sources (e.g., digitalis, rauwolfia alkaloids, and animal hormones) as human medicaments. Analogs and derivatives of these purified substances were also investigated... 

As is clear from the preceding discussion, plants express a vast array of toxic peptides in their defense that are interesting as structural models, active compounds in crop protection, and active compounds in pharmaceutical applications. In the plant kingdom the defense mechanisms involved have produced peptides for many kinds of microorganisms and predators, and in future it is possible that for any new problem in bacterial, viral, or fungal infection, a solution can be found on the basis of leads from plant defense molecules. 

Kreuzinger N, Clara M, Droiss H (2004) Relevance of the Sludge Retention Time (SRT) as de-sign criteria for wastewater treatment plants for the removal of endocrine disrupters and pharmaceuticals from wastewater. Water Sci Technol 50 149-156... 

Over the years, the use of extractives from plants, animals and minerals in therapeutics has been profound and progressive. Until the advent of synthetic and semi-synthetic drugs, natural remedies had been the sole source of medications in the medieval era. In spite of the rise in the use of synthetic pharmaceutical products, the use of natural bioremedies has continued to be rife. Apart from their proven efficacy, natural bioactive... 

The natural products of pharmaceutical application currently supplied from plant cell cultures technology are summarized in Table 1." ... 

Table 1. Plant-derived compounds supplied to the pharmaceutical market from plant cell cultures technology.

The search for chemical compounds that will cure disease, alleviate pain, or otherwise extend human life and make it more comfortable and pleasurable has been a part of human culture as far back as we know. Those who practice forms of traditional medicine have, over the centuries, developed extensive and sophisticated pharmacopoeias that contain many such compounds extracted from plants, animals, and minerals in their surrounding environments. Modern medical researchers have developed their own treasure chests of drugs, many of which have been derived from traditional medicines, and many others of which have been synthesized from basic materials, often by way of complex chemical reactions. Even after thousands of years of drug research, however, healers are not completely satisfied with the armory of chemicals available for their use. People are constantly searching for new compounds that will act more efficiently and more safely than existing pharmaceuticals and for substances with which to combat new forms of disease. 

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