ABSTRACT
Traditionally, the plant kingdom has been recognised as an inestimably rich source of potentially active metabolites not only as drugs, but also as unique leads that could serve as a starting point for the synthesis of new chemical analogues. This is best documented by the very great extent to which current medicines have their origins in plants. For example, artemisinin, codeine, digoxin, morphine, quinine, and taxol represent plant constituents of considerable therapeutic value, while salicin and khellin promoted the development of non-steroidal antiinflammatory agents and that of the antiasthmatic agent cromoglycinic acid, respectively. Thus, a successful modus operandi for finding promising agents involves the exploration of plants of traditional medical systems.
