Chemistry, Biology and Natural Products

The medicinal plants have been used as drugs for thousands of years and many of them are used in traditional medicines. How long are these medicinal plants used as drugs\ulcorner Ebers papyrus (BC 1550) is one of the oldest documents which described more than 700 kinds of herbal drugs. Some of herbal medicines described in the papyrus are familiar and ‘Opium’ is a good example. Some of the drugs described in the papyrus are hardly recognized as drugs by the standard of present day. We can trace back the history of medicinal plants from quite different approach. The investigations on group behavior of chimpanzees in Africa by ‘The Primate Institute of Kyoto University’ has revealed that chimpanzees suffered illness take specific plants which are not taken as daily food stuff. The chemical analysis clarified that the plants contain very bitter constituents and suggested that chimpanzees take medicinal plants to cure their illness. It is worth to note that young chimpanzees just learn what elder ones take when they suffer illness, but elders never teach to their children! It is no doubt that the chimpanzee's medicinal plants were found by random, and try and error screening. The medicinal plants found in this study have been used as herbal medicines by the peoples in the region.