The value of plants used in traditional medicine for drug discovery.
By D. Fabricant, N. Farnsworth. Environmental Health Perspectives, 2001
2,604 citations recorded by the source corpus.
In this review we describe and discuss several approaches to selecting higher plants as candidates for drug development with the greatest possibility of success. We emphasize the role of information derived from various systems of traditional medicine (ethnomedicine) and its utility for drug discovery purposes. We have identified 122 compounds of defined structure, obtained from only 94 species of plants, that are used globally as drugs and demonstrate that 80% of these have had an ethnomedical use identical or related to the current use of the active elements of the plant. We identify and discuss advantages and disadvantages of using plants as starting points for drug development, specifically those used in traditional medicine.
Subfields: Molecular Biology, Pharmacology, Plant Science
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/70c0541452254eaed66b19526884bcc9f179bb82
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Molecular Biology
In Pharmacology
In Plant Science
Citations in the corpus
- NATURAL PRODUCTS: A CONTINUING SOURCE OF NOVEL DRUG LEADS (2013, background): “Despite the intensive investigation of terrestrial flora, it is estimated that only 6% of the approximately 300,000 species (some estimates are as high as 500,000 species) of higher plants have been systematically investigated, pharmacologically, and only some 15% phytochemically [8, 102, 103].”
- Chamomile: A herbal medicine of the past with bright future (2010, positive): “Herbs have been integral to both traditional and non-traditional forms of medicine dating back at least 5000 years (2,4-6).”
- Extraction, isolation and characterization of bioactive compounds from plants' extracts. (2010, methodology): “If the plant was selected on the basis of traditional uses (Fabricant and Farnsworth, 2001), then it is needed to prepare the extract as described by the traditional healer in order to mimic as closely as possible the traditional ‘herbal’ drug.”
- Medicinal plants: Past history and future perspective (2017, background): “Nature has been served as the source of medicinal herbs (32).”
- How Can Synergism of Traditional Medicines Benefit from Network Pharmacology? (2017, background): “Considerable evidence indicates that many effective, widely used drugs obtained from plants were originally based on TM applications [10].”
- The Traditional Medicine and Modern Medicine from Natural Products (2016, background): “According to fossil records, the human use of plants as medicines may be traced back at least 60,000 years [1,2].”
- Biological activities and distribution of plant saponins. (2004, background): “This approach to drug discovery has received renewed interest in recent years, and potentially increases the chances for the discovery of novel therapeutic agents (Fabricant and Farnsworth, 2001).”
- Ayurveda and Traditional Chinese Medicine: A Comparative Overview (2005, background): “Western scientific community views traditional medicines cautiously and stress the concerns related to research, development and quality (9,10).”
- Influence of spray-drying operating conditions on Rhamnus purshiana (Cáscara sagrada) extract powder physical properties (2011, background): “In the last few years, a marked increase in the use of the so-called “traditional medicine” has been observed [1].”
- Discovery and resupply of pharmacologically active plant-derived natural products: A review (2015, background): “In line with this notion, analysis of 122 plant-derived compounds identified to be globally used as drugs revealed that 80%of themoriginate from plants that have ethnomedical use identical or related to the indications for which the respective pure compounds are prescribed (Fabricant and Farnsworth,”