Drug development from natural resource: a systematic approach

Abstract

Modern research in drug discovery from medicinal plants involves a multidimensional approach combining botanical, phytochemical, biochemical combinatorial chemistry and bioassay-guided fractionation approaches. Natural sources continue to provide an alternative as pharmacological leads against various devastating diseases such as diabetes, CVD, cancer etc. Nowadays, there is enormous requirement of safe and effective drugs in the world. This has prompted scientists to revert back towards natural resources as a potential source of therapeutics for treatment and management of such chronic and fatal diseases. However, there are certain serious challenges and limitations in this field including scale up and commercialization of active compounds which allow only one in thousand lead molecules to be developed as drug. A systematic and scientific approach is an essential requirement for drug development from natural resource. This mini review provides an overview of the methods involved in natural product research starting from crude plant extract to bioactive pharmacological lead. Moreover, it also discusses the limitations of working concerning the bioactivity of medicinal plants.