Sources of Drugs

Practice flashcards covering definitions, biological and mineral sources, and the classifications of drugs including synthetic, semi-synthetic, and biosynthetic types.

Drug

Any chemical substance that produces a change in biological function through its chemical activity.

Receptor

The specific regulatory molecule within a biological system with which a drug interacts.

Agonist

A molecule that interacts with a receptor to activate biological responses.

Antagonist

A molecule that interacts with a receptor to inhibit biological responses.

Pharmacognosy

A core discipline within pharmaceutical sciences that focuses on drugs obtained from natural origins.

Seydler

The German botanist who first introduced the term pharmacognosy.

Prevalence of Traditional Medicine

Nearly $80\%$ of the population in developing countries depend largely on herbal remedies.

Plant-derived Prescription Medicines

About $25\%$ of prescription medicines in the United States contain at least one active ingredient originating from plants.

Taxol

A highly effective anticancer agent produced via chemical modification of baccatin III, which is isolated from Taxus baccata (yew tree).

Acyclovir

A potent antiviral agent whose precursor was first identified from a marine sponge.

Apicidin

A fungal metabolite isolated from Fusarium pallidoroseum that shows broad-spectrum antiprotozoal activity and efficacy against Plasmodium berghei.

Curacin A

A lipid-derived compound from the marine cyanobacterium Lyngbya majuscula that exhibits strong anti-tumour activity.

Cephalosporins

A broad class of bactericidal antibiotics originally derived from the fungus Cephalosporium acremonium.

Ferrous sulfate

A mineral-derived substance used in the treatment of iron-deficiency anaemia.

Magnesium sulfate

A mineral salt that acts as a purgative.

Gold salts (e.g., solganal, auranofin)

Mineral-derived substances employed as anti-inflammatory agents in rheumatoid arthritis.

Kaolin

Also known as aluminium silicate, it is commonly used as an adsorbent in antidiarrhoeal formulations.

Geographical source (Habitat)

The country or region where a medicinal drug is originally produced or naturally occurs.

Semi-synthetic drugs

Medicines that originate from naturally occurring substances (plants, bacteria, or animal cells) and are then chemically modified to improve stability, safety, or efficacy.

Irinotecan

A semi-synthetic anticancer drug used for colon cancer, derived from the naturally occurring compound camptothecin found in Camptotheca acuminata.

Artemisinin

A bioactive compound isolated from Artemisia annua (sweet wormwood) in $1972$, whose derivatives are used for antimalarial therapy.

Synthetic drugs

Medicines manufactured entirely through chemical processes, offering high purity, consistent quality, and cost-effective production (e.g., aspirin, paracetamol).

Humulin

Human insulin produced via recombinant DNA technology for the treatment of diabetes.

Recombinant DNA technology

A biosynthetic process involving the use of restriction endonucleases to cleave DNA and link target genes to replication vectors to produce pure gene products.