Natural products chemistry and phytomedicine in the 21st century: New developments and challenges (original) (raw)

Abstracts of papers and posters 19th LOF-Symposium on Pharmacognosy and Natural Products Chemistry

Pharmacy World & Science, 1994

Phytomedicines have been used for a long time in Europe, and like all drugs, they must comply with very strict rules in accordance with the current scientific and clinical requirements. All countries in the EC have set up guiding principles for the registration of these drugs, but the conceptual approach appears not to be identical in each member state. Of course, this makes the future harmonization of the European legislation for marketing authorization much more difficult. The lecture deals with three points : As an example, the comparison between French and German legislations is presented concerning marketing authorziations in respect to the legal status of herbal drugs as medicinal products. France and UK followed very pragmatic approaches whilst others, such as Germany, chose more scientific ways, in order to develop specific monographs. The three main requirements : safety, efficacy and quality, are discussed in comparison with data available in the scientific literature. The aim is to reach a better standardization of complex forms like extracts and the elaboration of some criteria for combined products. Therefore, persisting problems will be mentioned together with the important role of some organizations (European Pharmacopoeia, ESCOP, WHO ...) for the elaboration of guidelines to assess phytomedicines and for a better harmonization leading to the free circulation of these drugs in Europe.

Plant-derived natural products for drug discovery: current approaches and prospects

The Nucleus

Nature has abundant source of drugs that need to be identified/purified for use as essential biologics, either individually or in combination in the modern medical field. These drugs are divided into small bio-molecules, plant-made biologics, and a recently introduced third category known as phytopharmaceutical drugs. The development of phytopharmaceutical medicines is based on the ethnopharmacological approach, which relies on the traditional medicine system. The concept of 'one-disease one-target drug' is becoming less popular, and the use of plant extracts, fractions, and molecules is the new paradigm that holds promising scope to formulate appropriate drugs. This led to discovering a new concept known as polypharmacology, where natural products from varying sources can engage with multiple human physiology targets. This article summarizes different approaches for phytopharmaceutical drug development and discusses the progress in systems biology and computational tools for identifying drug targets. We review the existing drug delivery methods to facilitate the efficient delivery of drugs to the targets. In addition, we describe different analytical techniques for the authentication and fingerprinting of plant materials. Finally, we highlight the role of biopharming in developing plant-based biologics.

Phytomedicine: An ancient approach turning into future potential source of therapeutics

2011

Phytomedicine obtained from herbal sources are in great demand in the developed world as they are able to cure many infectious diseases. These plant based drugs provide outstanding contribution to modern therapeutics. The natural medicine are attracting renewed attention from both practical and scientific view points, but the mode of action of folk herbal medicines and related products from nature is even more complex than mechanistic clarification of a single bioactive factor. They have proved their efficacy for primary health care because of their safety and lesser side effects. They also offer therapeutics for agerelated disorders like memory loss, osteoporosis, immune disorders, etc. The new-found popularity is due to their almost miraculous success with cases which were given up as hopeless by the allopathic doctors as their side-effect free treatment. The integration of phytomedicine into the health system should be developed in such a way to bring harmony between the traditional and modern system of health care with minimum threat to each other. The present review deals with impact and present scenario of phytomedicine in the society.

Possible Interventional Anticancer Therapy by Phytomedicines -A Review

Texila International Journal of Public Health , 2024

Cancer is the rapid proliferation that causes abnormal cells which metastasize to distant tissues. This aberrant signalling mechanism disrupts the regulation of cell proliferation and persistence, ultimately becoming the primary cause of mortality worldwide. The need for novel medications for the treatment and prevention of this deadly disease is constantly rising. Herbal therapies have significance for both preventing and treating a variety of malignancies. Anticancer medications have been discovered and developed from many herbal medicines by the presence of their bioactive phytochemicals such as phenolics, alkaloids, flavonoids, carotenoids, and other secondary metabolites. These herbal products are said to have less toxic side effects when compared to modern treatment strategies. Therapeutic medicinal herbs suppress the progression of cancerous cells by influencing the action of particular enzymes and hormones. The bioactive phytochemicals obstruct cancerous cell multiplication, promote apoptosis of malignant cells, enforce the necrosis of tumors, and inhibit their translocation. They also exert their action by enhancing the number of leukocytes and platelets, promoting the reverse transformation from tumor cells back to usual cells, and they similarly prevent carcinogenesis of regular cells. This review paper enlightens the significance of herbal medicines as anticancer agents and explains, in brief, the mechanism of action and the effects of the herbal bioactive compound. This review helps to explore the potential therapeutic plants as a basis for the discovery of chemotherapy medications.

Journey of Natural Products: From Isolation Stage to Drug’s Approval in Clinical Trials

Bioactivities

Nature serves as an excellent inspiration for researchers in the fields of chemistry and medicine. Terrestrial or marine organisms produce billions of natural products with unique chemical and physical properties. Some of them have been used in traditional therapy for specific diseases since ancient times. Although their exact chemical structures have yet to be elucidated clearly in that time, investigations in medicinal chemistry have been well documented. Furthermore, utilizing natural products in drug design and development offers advantages such as high biocompatibility, low toxicity, fewer side effects, wide bioactivities, and large structure diversity. Nowadays, rational drug research using computer-aided drug design is well established to cut the long way of drug discovery and overcome the resistance cases and the increment in the number of active patients. This review will highlight some natural products to comprehensively understand their journey from unknown natural produc...

Bioactive Phytochemicals Perspectives for Modern Medicine — Volume 3

Phytochemicals have been recognized as highly resourceful natural products throughout the world and employed for diverse applications with more focus on their therapeutic effects. Phytochemicals comprise heterogeneous chemical entities and capable of exerting modulatory effect on living organisms through wide ranging mechanisms and broad spectrum of effects. Analysis of the types of phytochemicals, strategies for discovery of bioactive compounds, their bioactivity and applications has been attempted in the first part of this article. Phytochemistry research, product development and current status of practical utility of research outcomes in the field of therapeutics against microbial diseases and cancer as well as biopesticides have been assessed. Lacunae in phytochemical research have been identified and recommendations for orientation of research focus towards practical application is suggested. Keywords: Phytochemicals, Bioactivity, Antibiotics, Chemotherapeutics, Biopesticides.

Natural products as reservoirs of novel therapeutic agents

EXCLI journal, 2018

Since ancient times, natural products from plants, animals, microbial and marine sources have been exploited for treatment of several diseases. The knowledge of our ancestors is the base of modern drug discovery process. However, due to the presence of extensive biodiversity in natural sources, the percentage of secondary metabolites screened for bioactivity is low. This review aims to provide a brief overview of historically significant natural therapeutic agents along with some current potential drug candidates. It will also provide an insight into pros and cons of natural product discovery and how development of recent approaches has answered the challenges associated with it.

Safety and efficacy of phytomedicines

2006

In this chapter the safety and efficacy of the phytomedicines around the globe have been discussed. Medicinal plants and herbal medicines are much more economic to use, than those of synthetic modern medicines. Due to this reason and also due to easy availability many poor patients of developing countries are attracted to these, even in developed countries like Germany, USA, etc., interests of people are growing. People believe that these herbal medicines are always safe, but unfortunately this is not the case. There are number of cases reported in the scientific reports around the globe, about the toxicities of the plants, plant products and herbal medicines. This chapter emphasizes and summarizes some of the important points on these safety and regulation issues.