The use of and search for drugs and dietary supplements derived from plants have accelerated in recent years. Ethnopharmacologists, botanists, microbiologists, and natural-products chemists are combing the Earth for phytochemicals and “leads” which could be developed for treatment of infectious diseases. While 25 to 50% of current pharmaceuticals are derived from plants, none are used as antimicrobials. Traditional healers have long used plants to prevent or cure infectious conditions; Western medicine is trying to duplicate their successes. Plants are rich in a wide variety of secondary metabolites, such as tannins, terpenoids, alkaloids, and flavonoids, which have been found in vitro to have antimicrobial properties. This review attempts to summarize the current status of botanical screening efforts, as well as in vivo studies of their effectiveness and toxicity. The structure and antimicrobial properties of phytochemicals are also addressed. Since many of these compounds are currently available as unregulated botanical preparations and their use by the public is increasing rapidly, clinicians need to consider the consequences of patients self-medicating with these preparations.

Plant Products as Antimicrobial Agents

Evolution of Protein Molecules

This review is an updated and expanded version of a paper that was published in this journal in 1997. The time frame has been extended in both directions to include the 22 years from 1981 to 2002, and a new secondary subdivision related to the natural product source but applied to formally synthetic compounds has been introduced, using the concept of a “natural product mimic” or “NM” to join the original primary divisions. From the data presented, the utility of natural products as sources of novel structures, but not necessarily the final drug entity, is still alive and well. Thus, in the area of cancer, the percentage of small molecule, new chemical entities that are nonsynthetic has remained at 62% averaged over the whole time frame. In other areas, the influence of natural product structures is quite marked, particularly in the antihypertensive area, where of the 74 formally synthetic drugs, 48 can be traced to natural product structures/mimics. Similarly, with the 10 antimigraine drugs, seven are bas...

Natural Products as Sources of New Drugs over the Period 1981−2002

■ Abstract Apoptosis is a genetically programmed, morphologically distinct form of cell death that can be triggered by a variety of physiological and pathological stimuli. Studies performed over the past 10 years have demonstrated that proteases play critical roles in initiation and execution of this process. The caspases, a family of cysteine-dependent aspartate-directed proteases, are prominent among the death proteases. Caspases are synthesized as relatively inactive zymogens that become activated by scaffold-mediated transactivation or by cleavage via upstream proteases in an intracellular cascade. Regulation of caspase activation and activity occurs at several different levels: ( a) Zymogen gene transcription is regulated; ( b) antiapoptotic members of the Bcl-2 family and other cellular polypeptides block proximity-induced activation of certain procaspases; and ( c) certain cellular inhibitor of apoptosis proteins (cIAPs) can bind to and inhibit active caspases. Once activated, caspases cleave a variety of intracellular polypeptides, including major structural elements of the cytoplasm and nucleus, components of the DNA repair machinery, and a number of protein kinases. Collectively, these scissions disrupt survival pathways and disassemble important architectural components of the cell, contributing to the stereotypic morphological and biochemical changes that characterize apoptotic cell death.

Mammalian caspases: structure ,a ctivation ,s ubstrates, and functions during apoptosis

Signaling--2000 and beyond.

Indolylquinones are useful for the treatment and prevention of diabetes mellitus, and in particular, for the treatment or prevention of hyperglycemia in diabetic patients. Some of the indolylquinones are produced by fermentation of the novel fungus Pseudomassaria sp. ATCC 74411.

Indolylquinones as antidiabetic agents

Taxonomic reconsideration of Epicoccum nigrum and Phoma epicoccina based on DNA sequences and morphological observations

A new species of Delitschia from west Africa

This invention relates to strains of the species Curvularia lunata isolated from tree bark and useful in a fermentation process to form compounds of formula (I): ##STR1##

Fernando Pelaez

Papers

Indolylquinones as antidiabetic agents

Taxonomic reconsideration of Epicoccum nigrum and Phoma epicoccina based on DNA sequences and morphological observations

A new species of Delitschia from west Africa

Squalene synthetase inhibitors and processes therefrom

Endophytic isolates of Creosphaeria sassafras