NATURAL-PRODUCTS AS A RESOURCE FOR NEW DRUGS

Natural products have served as a major source of drugs for centuries, and about half of the pharmaceuticals in use today are derived from n atural products. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of t he continuing central role of natural products in the discovery and de velopment of new pharmaceuticals. In this context, selected examples o f important natural product-derived drugs are cited, focusing on some of the most recent introductions to the clinical setting, and a brief overview of some of the important recent developments and remaining ch allenges in the process of discovering and developing bioactive natura l products is provided. Interest in natural products research is stron g and can be attributed to several factors, including unmet therapeuti c needs, the remarkable diversity of both chemical structures and biol ogical activities of naturally occurring secondary metabolites, the ut ility of bioactive natural products as biochemical and molecular probe s, the development of novel and sensitive techniques to detect biologi cally active natural products, improved techniques to isolate, purify, and structurally characterize these active constituents, and advances in solving the demand for supply of complex natural products. Opportu nities for multidisciplinary research that joins the forces of natural products chemistry, molecular and cellular biology, synthetic and ana lytical chemistry, biochemistry, and pharmacology to exploit the vast diversity of chemical structures and biological activities of natural products are discussed.