From Nature to Market: Examples of Natural Products that Became Drugs

Title:From Nature to Market: Examples of Natural Products that Became Drugs

Volume: 8 Issue: 1

Author(s): Angelo de Fatima, Bruna Silva Terra, Cleiton Moreira da Silva, Daniel Leite da Silva, Debora Pereira Araujo, Leonardo da Silva Neto and Roney Anderson Nascimento de Aquino

Affiliation:

Keywords: Drugs, galanthamine, morphine, natural products, paclitaxel, podophyllotoxin.

Abstract: Nature is an irrefutable source of inspiration for the modern man in many aspects. The observation and understanding of nature have allowed the development of new materials, new sources of energies, new drugs etc. Specifically, natural products provide a great contribution to the development of new agents for the treatment of infections and antitumor agents. However, obtaining natural products directly from animals, fungi, bacteria, plants etc has been considered not enough to attend the high demand by pharmaceutical industries. In this regard, various strategies based on biotechnological processes or synthetic approaches have been developed. In this scenario the total synthesis can be undoubtedly a useful and powerful tool for obtaining higher amounts of natural products and/or structural modifications thereof. Herein, we emphasize successful examples of total synthesis of galanthamine, morphine, paclitaxel and podophyllotoxin - natural products approved as pharmaceuticals.

Cite this article as:

Fatima de Angelo, Terra Silva Bruna, Silva Moreira da Cleiton, Silva Leite da Daniel, Araujo Pereira Debora, Neto da Silva Leonardo and Aquino Anderson Nascimento de Roney, From Nature to Market: Examples of Natural Products that Became Drugs, Recent Patents on Biotechnology 2014; 8 (1) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/1872208307666131220163108