药用天然产物的生物合成方法

雨中飘摇叶

This book has been written primarily for pharmacy students to provide a modern text to complement lecture courses dealing with pharmacognosy and the use of natural products in medicine. Nevertheless, it should be of value in other courses where the study of natural products is included, although the examples chosen are predominantly those possessing pharmacological activity.

For centuries, drugs were entirely of natural origin and composed of herbs, animal products, and inorganic materials. Early remedies may have combined these ingredients with witchcraft, mysticism, astrology, or religion, but it is certain that those treatments that were effective were subsequently recorded and documented, thus leading to the early Herbals. The science of pharmacognosy – the knowledge of drugs – grew from these records to provide a disciplined, scientific description of natural materials used in medicine. Herbs formed the bulk of these remedies. As chemical techniques improved, the active constituents were isolated from plants, were structurally characterized, and, in due course, many were synthesized in the laboratory. Sometimes, more active, better-tolerated drugs were produced by chemical modifications (semi-synthesis), or by total synthesis of analogues of the active principles.