Topic overview

Start with the big picture

Natural products from sources such as plants, fungi, actinomycetes, marine invertebrates, and venomous animals offer diverse molecular structures for drug discovery. Researchers use approaches including ethnopharmacology, screening, chemotaxonomy, genome mining, and metabolomics to identify candidate compounds. The discovery workflow commonly proceeds through extraction, bioassay-guided fractionation, dereplication, structure elucidation, and lead optimization. Chromatographic and related separation methods help purify active constituents, while semi-synthetic modification can adapt natural scaffolds. The topic also introduces advanced analytical and computational tools, strategies for addressing supply constraints, and ethical and legal considerations. Together, these methods show how pharmacognosy supports the identification and development of natural-source drug leads.