Plants as a Source of Standardised Extracts

The transition from plant extracts to pure compounds was spurred by the desire to overcome three major drawbacks of crude extracts  

Compared with extracts, pure compounds undoubtedly guarantee a more precise and reproducible dosage and are the only acceptable form of administration of active principles characterised by an extremely narrow therapeutic window, such as the plant alkaloid colchicine 40 from Colchicum autumnale L. Lethal poisoning from colchicine has been reported upon ingestion of 3-4 times the therapeutic dose of this compound111 and it would, therefore, be impractical to use colchicine-rich extracts rather than their active principle. 

For these reasons, the transition from extracts to pure compounds has been advocated since the birth of modern medicine. Thus, the eminent pharmacist Charles Louis Cadet de Gassicourt (le premier pharmacien de Napoleon) already pledged this in the inaugural issue of the Bulletin de Pharmacie in 1809112 and, thanks to the efforts of generations of phytochemists, the transition could be considered complete, at least for heroic drugs a century later. 

Plants Revamping the Oldest Source of Medicines with Modern Science 

Surely, we have never been in a better position to leverage on plant biodiversity to discover new drugs. What is missing is mainly the appreciation that capitalising on natural products takes time and that, unlike so many medical novelties du jour, natural products are more suitable for the clinics than for 

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