Bioprospection of Natural Products & Synthesis of Bioactive Molecules

Natural products have been a rich source of agents of value to medicine. More than half of currently available drugs are natural compounds or are related to them, and in the case of cancer this proportion surpasses 60%. A large number of NP based drugs were launched for marketing worldwide recently. In recent years, a significant revival of interest in plant based NPs as a potential source for new medicines has been observed among academia as well as pharmaceutical companies A number of important new commercialised drugs have been obtained from natural sources, by structural modification of natural compounds, or by the synthesis of new compounds, designed following a natural compound as model. The search for bioactives with improved activity continues to be an important line in the discovery of modern drugs. The huge structural diversity of natural compounds and their bioactivity potential have meant that several products isolated from plants, marine flora and microorganisms can serve as lead compounds for improvement of their therapeutic potential by molecular modification. Additionally, semi-synthesis processes of new compounds, obtained by molecular modification of the functiona