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Ephedra sinica Ephedraceae Ephedrine , Pseudoephedrine Glycine max Leguminosae Sitosterols Papaver somniferum Papaveraceae Opium , Codeine , Morphine Noscapine , Papaverine Physostigma venenosum Leguminosae Physostigmine ( Eserine ) Pilocarpus jaborandi Rutaceae Pilocarpine Plantago species Plantagi
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Maridass, Muthiah Britto, A. John De |
| Copyright Year | 2009 |
| Abstract | This review article describes the origins of plant derived medicines that have been developed as a result of traditional knowledge being handed down from one generation to the next. Various industries are now searching into sources of alternative, more natural and environmentally friendly antimicrobials, antibiotics, diabetics, antioxidants and crop protection agents. Medicinal plants have provided a good source of a wide variety of compounds, such as phenolic compounds, nitrogen compounds, vitamins, terpenoids and some other secondary metabolites, which are rich in valuable bioactivities, e.g., antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, antimutagenic, anti-carcinogenic, antibacterial, or antiviral activities. Medicinal plants have become the main object of chemists, biochemist, and pharmaceutics. Their research plays an important role for discovering and developing new drugs that hopefully have more effectiveness and no side actions like most modern drugs. Origin of Medicine Fossil records revealed that the human use of plants as traditional medicine date back to middle Paleolithic age, approximately 60,000 years ago (Solecki et al., 1975). The plants were used as flavors, foods, insect deterrents, ornamentals, fumigants, spices, and cosmetics (Kunin et al., 1996; Pieroni et al., 2004). Generally, the medicinally useful plants are sold as commodities in the market, and those that are sold for medicinal purposes dominate the market (Runner et al., 2001). At present, natural products (and their derivatives and analogs) represent over 50% of all drugs in clinical use, in which natural products derived from higher plants represent ca. 25% of the total (Alandrin et al., 1998). The World Health Organization estimated that over 80% of the people in developing countries rely on traditional remedies such as herbs for their daily needs (Tripathi et al., 2003), and about 855 traditional medicines include used crude plant extracts. This means that about 3.5 to 4 billion of the global population rely on plants resources for drugs (Farnsworth, 1988). Many infectious diseases are known to be treated with herbal remedies throughout the history of mankind. The maximum therapeutic and minimum side effects of herbal remedies have demonstrated or verified in numerous scientific investigations. Even today, plant materials continue to play a major role in primary health care as therapeutic remedies in many developing countries (Czygan, 1993; Ody, 1993). Market Demands of Medicinal Plants Nearly 95 percentage of plants used in traditional medicines are collected from forests and other natural sources. The plants collected from different sources show wide disparity in therapeutic values and also much variation in market rates. In the recent years there has been greater expansion of indigenous drug industry in India. Consequently the demand for the new material (medicinal plants) has enormously increased. According to latest estimate, there are about eight thousand licensed pharmacies of ISM in the country, engaged in the manufacture of bulk drugs to meet the requirement of people. The total annual requirement of the raw materials of these pharmacies was estimated to be thousands of quintals. This is presently met by cutting trees in the forest or uprooting herbs and shrubs either on nominal payment or unauthorized. Further, there is prime need to provide authentic or genuine drugs to manufacture standard medicine, as emphasized by earlier worker (Singh and Ghouse, 1993). The annual demand of the global market is $32 million of medicinal plants from developing countries. The herbal drug production in our country has been estimated to be rupees 4000 crores in the year 2000. Out of 15,000 20,000 medicinal plants, our rural communities use 7,000 7,500 medicinal plants. About 130 pure compounds, which are extracted from 100 species of higher plants of Indian origin, are used throughout the world. India can play a major role for supplying the raw herbs, standardized extracted materials and pure compounds isolated from natural resources (Mitra, 2002). New medicines have been discovered with traditional, empirical and molecular approaches (Harvey, 1999). The traditional approach makes use of material that has been found by trial and error over many years in different cultures and systems of medicine (Cotton, 1996). Table 1. Currently used Drugs in the United States that are obtained from flowering Plants. Plant Name Family Used Drugs Ammi majus Umbelliferae Xanthotoxina Ananas comosus Bromeliaceae Bromelain Atropa belladonna Solanaceae Belladonna Extract Avena sativa Gramineae Oatmeal Concentrate Capsicum species Solanaceae Capsicum Oleoresin Carica papaya Caricaceae Papain Cassia acutifolia Leguminosae Sennosides A + B Cassia angustifolia Leguminosae Sennosides A + B Catharanthus roseus Apocynaceae Leurocristine (vincristine) Vincaleukoblastine (vinblastine) Cinchona species Rubiaceae Quinine Citrus limon Rutaceae Pectin Colchicum autumnale Liliacae Colchicine Digitalis lanata Scrophulariaceae Digoxin,Lanatoside C, Acetyligitoxin Digitalis purpurea Scrophulariaceae Digitoxin Digitalis whole leaf Dioscorea species Dioscoreaceae Diosgenin Duboisia myoporoides Solanaceae Atropine,Hyoscyamine Scopolamine Ephedra sinica Ephedraceae Ephedrine, Pseudoephedrine Glycine max Leguminosae Sitosterols Papaver somniferum Papaveraceae Opium,Codeine,Morphine Noscapine, Papaverine Physostigma venenosum Leguminosae Physostigmine (Eserine) Pilocarpus jaborandi Rutaceae Pilocarpine Plantago species Plantaginaceae Psyllium husks Podophyllum peltatum Berberidaceae Podophyllin Prunus domestica Rosaceae Prune Concentrate Rauvolfia serpentine Apocynaceae Reserpine,Alseroxylon Fraction Powdered whole root Rauwolfia Rauvolfia vomitoria Apocynaceae Deserpidine, Reserpine Rescinnamine Rhamnus purshiana Rhamnacee Casanthranol Rheum species Polygonaceae Rhubarb Root Ricinus communis Euphorbiaceae Castor Oil, Ricinoleic Acid Veratrum viride Liliaceae Veratrum viride Cryptennamine Natural products have provided many effective drugs. These include a wide range of older drugs such as quinine (Kremsner et al., 1994) and morphine (Benyhe et al., 1994) and newer drugs such as paclitaxel (Taxol TM ) (Wani et al., 1971), camptothecin (Wall et al., 1966), etoposide (Endo et al., 1976), mevastatin (Keller-Juslén, et al., 1971), and artemisinin (Klayman, 1985). Further evidence of the importance of natural products is provided by the fact that almost half of the world's 25 best selling pharmaceuticals in 1991 were either natural product or their derivatives (O'Neill, 1993). |
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| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1078&context=ebl |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
