Natural Products in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Natural products were the basis of the first pharmaceutical practice and they continue to play an important role in modern chemotherapy. The term "natural products " is applied to ma-terials derived from higher plants, mi-croorganisrns, invertebrates, and verte-brates. They may be of interest in the crude form as collected, in partially purified concentrates, in pure form, or as structurally modified chemicals. They may be useful because of their activity in eliminating pain, controlling suffer-ing, or in the prevention or treatment of disease. They may be used in the formu