16.1 Introduction
Ever since humankind begins, a close connection between humans and mother earth
has been partly attributed to the discovery of cures for illnesses from nature. The
use of medicinal plants to treat various illnesses back then was totally based on
experience, due to the fact that there was no evidence-based knowledge behind the
cause and pathogenesis of illnesses. Over the time, medicinal plants play an
important role in the discovery and development of the drugs due to the advantages
of readily available and cost effectiveness (Atanasov et al. 2015). As a result of
nutritional needs and the adaption to the environmental challenges, plants produce
chemical compounds which then become the valuable source for novel therapeutic
agents (Khaw et al. 2017). Examples of clinically available plant-derived therapeutic compounds are vincristine from Catharanthus roseus, capsaicin from
Capsicum spp., paclitaxel from Taxus brevifolia and camptothecin from
Camptotheca acuminate.
Plant-derived compounds have contributed to the drug development as they
served as the lead compounds for some of the chemically-modified therapeutics
such as acetylsalicylic acid from salicylic acid, warfarin from dicoumarol and
topotecan from campthothecin. Public gives attention to the plant-derived compounds as proven by the award of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015
for the discovery of artemisinin which was isolated from Artemisia annua for the
treatment of parasitic diseases (Efferth et al. 2015). The therapeutic effects of
S. Y. Tang
Chemical Engineering Discipline, School of Engineering, Monash University Malaysia,
Bandar Sunway, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
Advanced Engineering Platform, Monash University Malaysia, Bandar Sunway,
Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
L. E. Low
Institute of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University,
Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, P.R. China
Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering of the Ministry of Education,
College of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument Science, Zhejiang University,
Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310027, P.R. China
L.-H. Lee
Health and Well-Being Cluster, Global Asia in the 21st Century (GA21) Platform,
Monash University Malaysia, Bandar Sunway, 47500 Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
B.-H. Goh
College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058,
P.R. China
564
Y. S. Ong et al.
Ever since humankind begins, a close connection between humans and mother earth
has been partly attributed to the discovery of cures for illnesses from nature. The
use of medicinal plants to treat various illnesses back then was totally based on
experience, due to the fact that there was no evidence-based knowledge behind the
cause and pathogenesis of illnesses. Over the time, medicinal plants play an
important role in the discovery and development of the drugs due to the advantages
of readily available and cost effectiveness (Atanasov et al. 2015). As a result of
nutritional needs and the adaption to the environmental challenges, plants produce
chemical compounds which then become the valuable source for novel therapeutic
agents (Khaw et al. 2017). Examples of clinically available plant-derived therapeutic compounds are vincristine from Catharanthus roseus, capsaicin from
Capsicum spp., paclitaxel from Taxus brevifolia and camptothecin from
Camptotheca acuminate.
Plant-derived compounds have contributed to the drug development as they
served as the lead compounds for some of the chemically-modified therapeutics
such as acetylsalicylic acid from salicylic acid, warfarin from dicoumarol and
topotecan from campthothecin. Public gives attention to the plant-derived compounds as proven by the award of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015
for the discovery of artemisinin which was isolated from Artemisia annua for the
treatment of parasitic diseases (Efferth et al. 2015). The therapeutic effects of
S. Y. Tang
Chemical Engineering Discipline, School of Engineering, Monash University Malaysia,
Bandar Sunway, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
Advanced Engineering Platform, Monash University Malaysia, Bandar Sunway,
Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
L. E. Low
Institute of Pharmaceutics, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University,
Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058, P.R. China
Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering of the Ministry of Education,
College of Biomedical Engineering & Instrument Science, Zhejiang University,
Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310027, P.R. China
L.-H. Lee
Health and Well-Being Cluster, Global Asia in the 21st Century (GA21) Platform,
Monash University Malaysia, Bandar Sunway, 47500 Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
B.-H. Goh
College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310058,
P.R. China
564
Y. S. Ong et al.