development of Synthetic Drugs from Medicinal Plants ¦
INTRODUCTION ¡¥The development of Synthetic Drugs from Medicinal Plants¡¦ How did Synthetic Drugs come to replace herbal remedies as the mainstream medicine? Main topics: „ª Definition of Synthetic Drug and Medicinal Plant. „ª Description of how the first synthetic drugs were developed and how the synthetic industry began. „ª Examples of plants still used to prepare some of today¡¦s major drugs. „ª Summary of the development of synthetic drugs from plant medicines and comment on possible future directions. MAIN BODY OF CONTENT ƒæ Definition of medicinal plants and synthetic drugs. ... 980 and 1475) the term natural is: ¡§of, existing in, or produced by nature and not affected by man or civilisation¡¨. The term synthetic is: ¡§a substance or material made artificially by chemical reaction¡¨. Extrapolating these definitions it is understood that a ¡¥natural drug¡¦ or medicinal plant is prepared from a natural source, a herb, which has undergone no, or very little processing i. ... A ¡¥synthetic drug¡¦ is a substance where the chemical structure does not appear naturally. Some synthetic drugs originate from natural sources which have been chemically transformed in a laboratory and are called semi-synthetic. ... ƒæ History Plants have been used throughout history. Every civilisation, has used plants as medicines. According to Hopking (2000) there have been archaeological findings of medicinal plants in Africa, India, China, Egypt, and Assyria, Greece, the Americas, east and west Europe. Who first used plants as medicines is unknown; however, the ¡¥medicine man¡¦ was a common figure in all cultures. A keen observer of nature and man, his knowledge was handed down from generation to generation. Then there are instances in history where substances other than plants have been used to treat ailments. The first accounts of experimenting with inorganic salts are placed back in the 4th century BC in Greece when Hippocrates, the ¡¥Father of Medicine¡¦, became interested in them. ... The Arab Avicenna used combinations of plants, minerals and metals for treatments. ... Phillippus Aureolus Paracelsus, a physician and alchemist (born Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim, in Switzerland, 1493-1541), combined the healing properties of plants with the powers of metals, introducing iron, antimony and inorganic substances in his practice. He was also a strong enthusiast of mercury in careful calculated doses: ¡§It depends only upon the dose whether a poison is poison or not¡¨ Paracelsus, as cited by Griggs (1981 p 71).