BOT 2000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: British Pharmacopoeia, Analgesic, Paclitaxel
Document Summary
Earliest written records of plant use in medicine found written on clay tablets in mesopotamia dating 2600-3000 bc sumaria: includes: cedar (cedrus), liquorice (glycyrrhiza glabra), poppy (papaver somniferum, still used for their medicinal properties today. In 1932, over 70% of organic monographs in the british pharmacopoeia were plant-derived. Plants lost their predominance in drug development w/ discovery of microbial produced compounds and advances in synthetic chemistry. ~25% of prescription drugs in na are based on compounds originally obtained from plants. Recent trends in medicine is to incorporate a larger amount of plant-based medicine back into the health care system. Misleading to judge importance of plants in modern medicine based on gures of medical practices of developed nations: ~75-80% of the world population relies on traditional medicine for their primary health care. In europe, 1300 plants are used medicinally w/ up to 90% coming from the wild. Globally, 2/3 of 50 000 species of medicinal plants are collected from the wild.
