Advances in Natural Products: Importance in Health and Economy/Nam S & T Centre

Natural products, including plants, animals and minerals have been the basis of treatment of human diseases and have been exploited for human use for thousands of years. These have been the most important sources of drugs and drug leads in history, underlined by the fact 61 per cent of all new chemical entities introduced worldwide as drugs during 1981-2002 can be traced to or were inspired by natural products. The developing world is performing extensive work in identifying enormous natura...