Plant sources traditional medicine

Natural products have been used as therapeutic agents or medicinal products for millennia in one form or another and a huge number of these, especially prior to the last 50 years, are derived from plants [2]. Today, natural products derived from plant sources continue to play a vital role in the treatment of diseases. There are many examples where the active compound in plant-derived traditional medicines has been used as a pharmaceutical agent. A particularly important example is the discoveiy and development of anti-malarial drugs such as quinine and artemisinin (Fig. 1.3). Quinine was isolated as early as 1820 and was used extensively until the... 

Medicinal plants have been used as a major source of drugs for thousands of years in human history, and even today they are basis of the systematic traditional medicine practices in many countries all over the world. The first recorded literature on medicinal plants can be traced back to an earher age of human history, such as the Atharvaveda (2000 BC) in India, the Divine Farmer s Herb-Root Classic (3000 BC) in China, and the Eber Papyrus (1550 BC) in Egypt [7, 8]. It is evident that the modem drug industry has been developed to a considerable degree as a result of plant-based traditional medicines. A review pubhshed in 2001 indicated that 88 active compounds isolated from 72 medicinal plants have been introduced into... 

Tabernaemontana plants are mentioned in ethnobotanical literature for then-broad use in traditional medicine or for nonmedicinal purposes, mainly as sources of wood, rubber, arrow poison, birdlime, and others (9). Ethnophar-macological data are available for about 70 species, some of them not yet chemically investigated. 

Traditionally, medicinal lead structures have originated from plant, microbial fermentation, and animal sources. Most new drug candidates today are identified through four approaches ... 

In many developing countries of the world, there is still a major reliance on crude drug preparation of plants used in traditional medicines for their primary health care. Pharmacognosists employed in the different institutions are aware of the changing trends of herbal medications and a number of useful texts on the analysis, uses, and potential toxicities of herbal remedies have appeared recently, which serves as useful guides in pharmacy practice. The history of medicine includes many ludicrous therapies. Nevertheless, ancient wisdom has been the basis of modem medicine and will remain as one important source of future medicine and therapeutics. The future of natural products drug discovery will be more holistic, personahzed and involve the wise use of ancient and modem therapeutic skills in a complementary manner so that maximum benefits can be accmed to the patients and the community. 

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... 

A point that is often forgotten in westernized medicine is that of the approximate 7 billion people in the world at this moment, more than 80% of them do not have routine access to drugs as they are defined in Western medicine, but rely upon predominately plant-based therapies as their sources of medicinal agents. Even in areas of the world where single agent drugs are available, traditional therapeutic regimens such as Ayurveda in India, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Japanese and Korean herbals are still the major source of medicinals. 

Sustainable management of medicinal plant resources is important, not only because of their value as a potential source of new drugs, but also due to the reliance on traditional medicinal plants for health. The vast majority (70-80%) of the population in developing countries still rely on traditional medicinal practitioners (TMPs) for healthcare (Farnsworth et al., 1985). 

Discovering new drugs has never been a simple matter. From ancient times to the beginning of the last century, treatment for illness or disease was based mainly on folklore and traditional curative methods derived from plants and other natural sources. The isolation and chemical characterization of the principal components of some of these traditional medicines, mainly alkaloids and the like, spawned the development of the modem pharmaceutical industry and the production of drugs in mass quantities. Within the last century, however, the changes the industry has undergone have been profound. As the companion chapters of this volume describe, the emphasis has changed from isolation of active constituents to creation of new, potent chemical entities. This evolution from folklore to science is responsible for the thousands of pharmaceuticals available worldwide at present (1). 

ABSTRACT Quinones constitute a structurally diverse class of phenolic compounds with a w ide range of pharmacologial properties, which are the basis for different applications in the broad field of pharmacy and medicine. In traditional medicine all over the world, plants which are rich in quinones are used for the treatment of a variety of diseases. Besides the classical applications of these plants in industry (dyestuffs) and pharmaceutical (laxatives) practice, the relatively new field of biologically active quinones will be discussed. This review gives an account of the work done on naturally occurring bioactive quinones from 1992 to the present date. The biological activity detected in quinones from natural and synthetic sources has been discussed in relation to chemical structure under the respective titles. 

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