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Plant-derived natural product research aimed at new drug discovery

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Abstract

Many important bioactive compounds have been discovered from natural sources using bioactivity-directed fractionation and isolation (BDFl) [Balunas MJ, Kinghorn AD (2005) Drug discovery from medicinal plants. Life Sci 78:431–441]. Continuing discovery has also been facilitated by the recent development of new bioassay methods. These bioactive compounds are mostly plant secondary metabolites, and many naturally occurring pure compounds have become medicines, dietary supplements, and other useful commercial products. Active lead compounds can also be further modified to enhance the biological profiles and developed as clinical trial candidates. In this review, the authors will summarize research on many different useful compounds isolated or developed from plants with emphasis placed on those recently discovered by the authors’ laboratories as antitumor and anti-HIV clinical trial candidates.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Drs. K. Takeya and Y. Hitotsuyanagi of the Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Science, Dr. H. Morita of Hoshi Pharmaceutical University, Dr. O. Shirota of Tokushima Bunri University, and Dr. I. Takano of the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health for their valuable contributions to some of this research. This investigation was supported by grants from the National Cancer Institute, NIH (CA-17625) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH (AI-33066), awarded to K.H. Lee.

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  1. Natural Products Research Laboratories, School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27599-7360, USA

    Hideji Itokawa, Susan L. Morris-Natschke, Toshiyuki Akiyama & Kuo-Hsiung Lee

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  1. Hideji Itokawa
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  2. Susan L. Morris-Natschke
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  3. Toshiyuki Akiyama
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Correspondence to Kuo-Hsiung Lee.

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Antitumor Agents 263 and Anti-AIDS Agents 74.

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Itokawa, H., Morris-Natschke, S.L., Akiyama, T. et al. Plant-derived natural product research aimed at new drug discovery. J Nat Med 62, 263–280 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11418-008-0246-z

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