Doing scientific research on natural compounds isolated from herbs and other plants is a very exciting, and can have a direct influence on human health, since such compounds have the potential to be developed in very successful modern pharmaceutical drug. Morphine, quinine, and many other indispensable medications are molecules derived from Nature.

Recognizing the potential of the natural molecules, the Austrian science fund (FWF) has recently financed a collaborative Austrian scientific network project called Drugs from Nature Targeting Inflammation (DNTI). The DNTI project gathered together scientists having expertise in almost all aspects relevant for natural molecules drug discovery, including phytochemistry, in vitro and in vivo pharmacology, biotechnology, ethnopharmacology, organic synthesis, and computer modeling. The combined multi-disciplinary expertise enabled DNTI participants to write together a joint very comprehensive review, summarizing the gathered experience, and broadly covering the natural molecules-based drug discovery research topic in a unique way. This work, entitled “Discovery and resupply of pharmacologically active plant-derived natural products: A review.” was very recently accepted for publication in Biotechnology Advances, a very influential top-class scientific journal. The analysis that we have performed in this work yields many deep insides in this research sphere, and interestingly indicated recent sharply increasing interest in the area of natural compounds drug discovery research, in spite of the late lack-of-interest displayed by the pharma industry. Whereby this review provided an early indication for the reviving interest in natural compounds drug discovery research, a very strong signal pointing in the same direction was very soon afterwards provided also by the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which went to William Campbell and Satoshi Omura, and Youyou Tu for their works related to the successful development of the pharmaceutical drugs Avermectin and Artemisinin, both of which represent molecules derived from the Nature.

Publication

Discovery and resupply of pharmacologically active plant-derived natural products: A review.
Atanasov AG, Waltenberger B, Pferschy-Wenzig EM, Linder T, Wawrosch C, Uhrin P, Temml V, Wang L, Schwaiger S, Heiss EH, Rollinger JM, Schuster D, Breuss JM, Bochkov V, Mihovilovic MD, Kopp B, Bauer R, Dirsch VM, Stuppner H
Biotechnol Adv. 2015 Aug 15

Read offline:     

Related Articles:

	Your pharmacist will see you now! Public perception of pharmacists might be limited to dispensing medications. However, pharmacists are trained to deliver patient care to help patients improve their health-related outcomes and achieve their goals. Recognizing…
	Perspectives for anti-tuberculosis therapy with… Generally, antibiotic therapies use single antibiotics to combat sensitive bacteria. The standard of antituberculosis therapy includes four antibacterial agents that all have different modes of activities in the initial phase…
	Does UV-B radiation modify gene expression? Frequently the harsh environmental conditions, such as, high temperatures, low freezing conditions, high levels of PAR and UV-B sun radiation induce remarkable adaptive reactions in plants. These responses suggest that…
	Clinically utilized nalfurafine combined with… Alcohol addiction poses massive public health costs [~15 million adult alcoholics with economic cost > $200 billion/year in the US]. Pharmacological studies in rodents have demonstrated that kappa-opioid receptor (KOR)…
	Actinobacteria from Algerian ecosystems as a rich… Secondary metabolites are molecules not essential for the growth and development of microorganism, mainly having a defence role. They have shown a great potential for the discovery of drugs and…
	Newly emerging drugs of abuse: A cat-and-mouse game Recreational drug abuse and the resultant overdose have been a serious public health threat in the U.S. and the world. While traditional drugs of abuse remain popular, recreational use of…