Recent Trends in Natural Product Research and Bangladesh Perspective

Abstract

Background: Natural products, especially those derived from higher plants, have attracted scientists from ancient time because of their potential therapeutic values. Drug development from natural sources showed that natural products or natural productderived drugs comprised about 28% of all new chemical entities launched to the market. These are originated from terrestrial plants, microbes, marine organisms, etc. However, until recently an insignificant part of the plants has been scientifically evaluated for their medicinal properties. Bangladesh is a rich repository of medicinal plants, many of which are widely used in the Ayurvedic, Unani, herbal and other traditional systems of medicines. The study programs were initiated to investigate some of the traditionally used medicinal plants of Bangladesh, including Corypha taliera, the only living wild species of tali palm for the discovery of novel drug candidates as well as to isolate and identify bioactive compounds from several microbial strains and marine samples.