6. industrial production of the active principle and of the corresponding medicinal preparation, and 7. national and international registration BIOASSAY GUTDED SEPARATION AND STRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION Many important drugs are derived from compounds originally discovered in plants, and there is now increasing interest in searching for new therapeutically useful molecules from natural sources. The naturally occurring compound will, in all likelihood, only provide the starting point for development of analogues, but the most important step in the discovery process is the identification of this source of interesting biological activity. Several approaches to discovery of activities are outlined below: • The ethnobotanical route • Bioassay-guided serendipity • Straight serendipity • Exploitation of chemotaxonomic knowledge • Investigations based on chemicalecology The examples are taken from higher plants, but it should be remembered that bioactive molecules can be found from many other sources e.g. pteridophytes, fungi, algae, marine organisms, and animal venoms. Thus, the resource of ...
While identifying new medicinal clues from the plant Salvia leucantha (Figure 1), Aoyagi et al. successfully isolated Salvileucalin B in 2008.1 Plants of the Salvia type have a very rich history in medicine. The name Salvia actually originates from the Latin word salvare, which means ‘to heal’. This isolated molecule exerts cytoxic activity against A594 (human lung adenocarcinoma) and HT-29 (human colon adenocarcinoma) cells with IC50 values of 5.23 and 1.88 µg/mL, respectively.1 Salvileucalin B is a unique member of the clerodane family because it contains an attractive carbon framework. The structure of this molecule is shown in Figure 2 below:
Thesis: There needs to be regulation of herbal remedies and dietary supplements from an outside source that is not interested in the monetary benefits
The multiple use of plants used for nourishment, medicinal purposes and practical use were ignored by Lewis and Clark during their monumental trek across the United States. Rather than consider the Native Indian’s use of native plants they persisted on using Dr. Rush’s Thunderbolt pills that probably caused more problems than the condition that inflicted them. Many modern day cultures continue to ignore native remedies and have come to depend on synthetic pharmaceutical drug production. In recent years the wealth of indigenous knowledge has been acknowledged revealing the use of native plants and the importance it had in the survival of indigenous people.. Pharmaceutical companies have utilized the immense knowledge of the indigenous people and their use of natural plants. The application of natural plant species have revealed the main reasons mankind has survived into present day. Following is a few of the plants, their application and their specific purposes.
Lindberg, D. (n.d.). Herbal Medicine: MedlinePlus. U.S National Library of Medicine. Retrieved May 7, 2014, from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/herbal
The effectiveness of any plant is not due to the action of any one chemical as modern science would have you believe. When plants are synthesized in a lab, they are analyzed to find their most potent and active components. The rest of the plant is left behind. What science is forgetting is that each leaf, stem, flower and root work in their own unique way to deliver what is need to the body.
In conclusion, E. cava is a very interesting resource, due to the presence of unique phlorotannin derivatives with special bioactivities including ACE inhibitory activity. Ethanol enhances the extraction of phlorotannins specially dieckol from the brown seaweed E. cava. By contrast, in this study phloroglucinol derivative dieckol exhibited the strongest activity against ACE. With the results of this study we can suggest that the brown seaweed E. cava could be used in development of promising and potential functional food products. Moreover, it is expected that these findings will contribute to developing interests in basic research and potential applications of the phlorotannins in the relevant fields.
Many plants and plant derived products are used in cancer therapy as cytotoxic agents. Examples include Taxol that is used for breast cancer (which gets its active constituent from Pacific Yew tree) and the vinca alkaloids used for leukaemia (from the Madagascar ...
Our friends the Native American people held a knowledge of plants used for medicine that has held true to this day. The Native Americans used more than 500 healing herbs thought to be healing secrets that are used in many modern day drugs. Native American healers regarded plants as relatives with the same energy, elements, minerals, and living compounds that are found in the natural world. Researchers in laboratories estimate that 25 percent of the drugs in use have actual ingredients either derived from or chemically similar to those in plants. Some of the drugs that have their roots in nature are the cancer drug tamoxifen, the heart drug digitalis, and painkillers morphine and aspirin. The powers of observation and the passing on of
Plant defences are those mechanisms employed by plants in response to herbivory and parasitism. According to Hanley et al. (2007), “the tissues of virtually all terrestrial, freshwater, and marine plants have qualities that to some degree reduce herbivory, including low nitrogen concentration, low moisture content, toxins or digestibility-reducing compounds”. The type of chemical defence may be species specific (Scott 2008). The defences that plants possess may be in the form of chemical production or in the form of physical defences such as thorns or spikes and even through reinforced, rigid leaves. “The compounds that are produced in response to herbivory can either have a direct effect on the attacker itself (e.g. toxins or digestibility reducers), or serve as indirect defenses by attracting the natural enemies of the herbivores” (Bezemer & van Dam 2005). This essay will focus on chemical plant defences and in particular the effects of terpenes, phenolics, nitrogen-based defences as well as allelopathy in plants.
Most of the drugs in use today have come from nature. Three common examples include aspirin, morphine, and penicillin. “‘In the old days you could wander around a corn field or up in a forest, take little dirt samples, bring them back to the lab—and what do you know? You’d found microorganisms that produce streptomycin, or actinomycin, or...
For centuries, the use of the extracts from various medicinal plants have been used for the treatment of pain and fever. One among those plants, called white willow (Salix alba), contained the derivatives of salicylic acid is famous to have the properties of relief for pain and fever. By the year 1760’s, one of the active ingredients of these plants, that is, salicin was discovered. Salicin, salicylic acid and aspirin belong to a family of medicinally useful compounds called salicylates.
The use of natural products as medicine has been practiced for thousands of years. Natural products can be very diverse and yield the best medicinal results because they may produce fewer side effects. Natural products are used as the starting products by pharmaceutical companies when trying to create new, modernized medicines. Making medicine out of natural products has had a lasting effect on organic chemistry because it paved the path for modern, medicinal research on pharmaceuticals and for the development of new, synthetic medicines synthesized in a laboratory setting.
Flavonoids are widely distributed in plants, fulfilling many functions. Flavonoids are the most important in plant pigments for flower coloration, producing yellow, red, or blue pigmentation in plants designed to attract pollinators. In higher plants, flavonoids are involved in UV filtration, symbiotic nitrogen fixation and floral pigmentation. They may also act as chemical messengers, physiological regulators, and cell cycle inhibitors. Flavonoids, which are polyphenolic compounds, are a class of plant secondary metabolites possessing a broad spectrum of pharmacological activity including anti-cancer activities. Among the various natural products, flavonoids have attracted much attention due to their remarkable spectrum of pharmacological activities such as antioxidant, antimutagenic, antibacterial, antiangiogenic,anti-inflammatory, antiallergic, modulators of enzymatic activities and anti-cancer activity. Flavonoids have been found act as protein kinase inhibitors which can prevent alterations in phosphorylation that result in uncontrolled cell division, inhibition of apoptosis, and other abnormalities. Flavonoids can be known as angiogenesis agents. Angiogenesis is a physiological process resulting in formation of new blood vessels from pre-existing vessels. Antigiogenesis cause rapid growth of solid tumor and tumor metasta-sis are promoted by uncontrolled tumor angiogenesis. The flavonoids can control this growth of tumor. Besides that, flavonoids also can act as antioxidants which known as substances that delay, prevent or remove oxidative damage to a target molecule (Ravishankar et al., 2013).
During the early 19th century, scientists’ started to study chemical components of herbs known. They then enhanced and make their own version of plant compounds. This is the reason why there is an existing rivalry between herbal and therapeutic medicines (Herbal Medicine).
... herbal drugs. Their application is grounded either on traditional medicine or on modern-day scientific research findings. Many medicinal plants are employed as self-medications or are used upon the recommendation of a physician or pharmacist. They are employed both independently and/or in combination as complementary medicines to synthetic drugs. It is imperative for an adequate and successfully applied therapy that an accurate early diagnosis is made of the illness along with selection of the appropriate pharmacological effects associated with the specific herbal components (10).