Some medical plants introduce compounds such as atropine and reserpine that are expensive to synthesize |
About 80 % of people in developing countries still rely on medicinal secrete-based traditional medicines for their primary health care. In the U.S., about 15 % of prescriptions are filled with drugs whose bustling ingredients are extracted or derived from medical plants. Several of the drugs sold today are cretinous synthetic modifications or copies of the naturally obtained substances. Approximately 120 prescription drugs are derived from plants, and these drugs come from only 95 plant species. Today there are at least 120 distinct chemical substances derived from plants that are considered as important drugs currently in use in one or more countries in the world. These chemical substances are shown in the table below. We tend to think of prescription and cancer treatment drugs as coming from new medical plant discoveries, but there have been many drugs and chemicals that are commonplace now that we don’t think much as “wonder drugs” any longer that were derived from medicinal plants. |