A Natural History of Botanical Therapeutics

Plants have been used as a source of medicine throughout history and continue to serve as the basis for many pharmaceuticals used today. Although the modern pharmaceutical industry was born from botanical medicine, synthetic approaches to drug discovery have become standard. However, this modern approach has led to a decline in new drug development in recent years and a growing market for botanical therapeutics that are currently available as dietary supplements, drugs, or botanical drugs. Most botanical therapeutics are derived from medicinal plants that have been cultivated for increased yields of bioactive components. The phytochemical composition of many plants has changed over time, with domestication of agricultural crops resulting in the enhanced content of some bioactive compounds and diminished content of others. Plants continue to serve as a valuable source of therapeutic compounds because of their vast biosynthetic capacity. A primary advantage of botanicals is their complex composition consisting of collections of related compounds having multiple activities that interact for a greater total activity.Research supported by NIH Grant P50 AT002776-01 from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) which funds the Botanical Research Center; also supported by Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health under U01 TW006674 for the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups; and Rutgers University.NIH P50 AT002776-01; by William CefaluNIH U01 TW006674The published version of this article is available at: http://www.metabolismjournal.com