Natural products in therapy. Prospects, goals and means in modern research.

A review is presented which shows the vegetable kingdom as an almost inexhaustible reservoir of potential drugs. Some historical aspects about the use of plants and their constituents in medicine are dealth with. A number of problems connected with the search for new prototype drugs of biological origin is reported as well as modern methods used in this promising research. Some examples are given concerning recent results of investigations of plants used in traditional and modern medicine in China. Special attention is paid to the present role of natural products in therapy: as biologically active compounds as such, as starting materials for (semi)synthetic drugs and, last but not least, as source of inspiration or as models for the synthesis of new drugs with better therapeutic, chemical or physical properties than the original compounds.