The role of plant-derived drugs and herbal medicines in healthcare

• Published in: Drugs (New York, N.Y.) Vol. 54; no. 6; pp. 801 - 840
• Main Author: DE SMET, P. A. G. M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Auckland Adis International 01.12.1997
• Subjects: Antimalarials - therapeutic use; Antineoplastic Agents, Phytogenic - therapeutic use; Artemisia - therapeutic use; Biological and medical sciences; General pharmacology; Humans; Medical sciences; Pharmacognosy. Homeopathy. Health food; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Phytotherapy; Plant Extracts - adverse effects; Plant Extracts - therapeutic use; Plants, Medicinal; Asia; China; India; Antineoplastic agent; Antimalarial; Pharmacognosy; Toxicity; Treatment efficiency; Review; Medicinal plant; Western countries; Ethnopharmacology; Folk medicine; Taxane derivatives; Parasiticid; Plant origin; Phytotherapy
• ISSN: 0012-6667; 1179-1950
• DOI: 10.2165/00003495-199754060-00003

Many of our present medicines are derived directly or indirectly from higher plants. While several classic plant drugs have lost much ground to synthetic competitors, others have gained a new investigational or therapeutical status in recent years. In addition, a number of novel plant-derived substances have entered into Western drug markets. Clinical plant-based research has made particularly rewarding progress in the important fields of anticancer (e.g. taxoids and camptothecins) and antimalarial (e.g. artemisinin compounds) therapies. In addition to purified plant-derived drugs, there is an enormous market for crude herbal medicines. Natural product research can often be guided by ethnopharmacological knowledge, and it can make substantial contributions to drug innovation by providing novel chemical structures and/or mechanisms of action. In the end, however, both plant-derived drugs and crude herbal medicines have to take the same pharmacoeconomic hurdle that has become important for new synthetic pharmaceuticals.