**5. Recent developments of plant-derived active compounds in drug development**

 With the recent interest in molecular modeling, combinatorial chemistry, and other synthetic chemistry techniques by pharmaceutical companies and funding organizations, natural products, and particularly medicinal plants, remains an important source of new drugs, new drug leads, and NCEs [56]. In both 2001 and 2002, approximately one quarter of the bestselling drugs worldwide were natural products or derived from natural products. Some of the plant-derived drugs and their significance are listed in the **Table 2**. Many plant-derived compounds have been used as drugs, either in their original or semisynthetic form. Recent developments in drug discovery from plants, including information on approved drugs and



#### **Table 2.**

*Selected compounds derived from medicinal plants.* 

plant extracts or compounds now in clinical trials, are available [57]. It is anticipated that in the future, plant-derived compounds will still be an essential aspect of the therapeutic array of medicines available to the physician [57].
