Drug Research: Keep It Natural

As research for new therapeutic drugs has turned more and more towards combinatorial synthetic chemistry in the last decade, researchers urge the scientific world to look deeper into natural solutions. Medicinal drugs currently on the market are essentially of natural origin or derivatives of natural compounds, but more remain to be discovered. And this can only be done through the preservation and proper study of the planet’s biodiversity.

We wish to draw the attention of readers to the rapidly evolving recognition that a significant number of natural product drugs/leads are actually produced by microbes and/or microbial interactions with the “host from whence it was isolated”, and therefore we consider that this area of natural product research should be expanded significantly.

Source: Journal of Natural Products