Phytochemistry of Medicinal Plants

Abstract

A natural product is a chemical compound or substance produced by a living newlineorganism that is, found in nature or refers to any substance produced by life. newlineHistorically, the majority of new drugs have been generated from natural products newline(secondary metabolites) and from compounds derived from natural products. There is newlineno doubt that natural products have been, and will be, important sources of new newlinepharmaceutical compounds. Some of the oldest natural product based drugs are the newlinebark of the willow tree has been known from antiquity to have pain relieving newlineproperties. This is due to presence of the natural product salicin which in turn may be newlinehydrolyzed into salicylic acid. Another notable example is opium is extracted from newlinethe latex from Papaver somniferous (a flowering poppy plant). The most potent newlinenarcotic component of opium is the alkaloid morphine which acts as an opioid newlinereceptor agonist. newline