Medicinal Natural Products
A Biosynthetic Approach
Chapter One
ABOUT THIS BOOK, AND HOW TO
USE IT
THE SUBJECT
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 for ... read full excerpt from Medicinal Natural Products: A Biosynthetic Approach ebook
