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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2001  > February  >
Chemistry for Everyone
Products of Chemistry
Old Yet New--Pharmaceuticals from Plants
Peter J. Houghton
Department of Pharmacy, King's College London, Franklin-Wilkins Building, London SE1 8WA, UK
Cover
February 2001
Vol. 78 No. 2
p. 175
Abstract
Plants or their crude extracts have been used since prehistory to treat human ailments. Plants are still used in this way in many parts of the world, but Western scientific medicine has tended to isolate active compounds, or make derivatives of them, for use as drugs. Compounds produced by the plant have been important pharmaceuticals since the isolation of morphine almost two hundred years ago and new naturally occurring compounds such as paclitaxel are continually being introduced commercially. Bioactive molecules may also be produced from chemicals found in plants by chemical modification using synthetic chemistry or microorganisms (as in the production of steroids). A third major contribution of plant chemicals to drugs is their utilization as templates for the design of new compounds made by synthesis (e.g. the discovery of aspirin and related compounds from substances in willow bark). New pharmaceuticals from plants are being discovered by examining traditional medicines and by large-scale bioassay screening processes. In addition, the chemical survival systems of plants that exist in hostile environments are receiving increasing attention as leads to discover active compounds. The knowledge of botanical relationships helps find new sources of known compounds of interest and novel compounds with similar structures from related species. Future prospects for the discovery of new compounds from plants are broadened by the new technologies of gene manipulation, tissue culture, and combinatorial chemistry, so it is very likely that natural products from plants will continue to play an important role in the fight against disease.
More Information
*  Citation
 Houghton, Peter J. J. Chem. Educ. 2001 78 175.
*  Keywords
 Bioorganic Chemistry; Drugs / Pharmaceuticals; History / Philosophy; Medicinal Chemistry; Plant Chemistry; Public Understanding
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 December 22, 2000
April 14, 2005
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