Basics and Fundamentals of Natural Product Research

Abstract

Historical evidence shows that plant-derived agents have had therapeutic relevance in the lives of humans providing different classes of drugs. Many natural products and synthetically modified natural product derivatives have been successfully developed for clinical use to treat human diseases. Drug discovery from medicinal plants continues to provide new and important leads against various pathologies targets including cancer, malaria, cardiovascular diseases and neurological disorders. Proper sample preparation can increase the extraction efficiency of biologically active compounds. Extraction is the separation of the pharmacologically active, chemical distinct non-matrix components of a plant, microbial, or animal material from the matric (structural) parts. Natural extracts are often extremely complex and contain many unknown compounds. In this situation, the use of an effect-related analytical approach is a real relief. Information about biological effects of natural complex materials in humans, is a necessity for natural product research to be meaningful and useful. This brings to the fore effect-directed analysis which identifies or isolates substances of biological relevance. Data bases and books were consulted for information contained in this review. This review discusses the fundamentals of natural product research from a wide range of methods of preparing plant material, extraction, concentration, separation, isolation, pharmacological activity screening, toxicity profiling, virtual screening, and data analysis