Dr. Douglas Kinghorn began his talk by explaining some overview statistics, such as the fact that three quarters of the world’s population rely on plants as a major source of medicine. I found it interesting that heroin was actually on the market for about 4 years (before it was found to be addictive) and that it was thought to be a “hero” of a drug–hence its name.
Ethnobotany is the “relationship between man and his ambient vegetation.” A branch of ethnobotany is ethnopharmacology, which specially focuses on the medicinal uses of plants. Many studies in this field focus on alkaloids, which have nitrogen atom(s) present and are toxic; important plant alkaloids include atropine, quinine and caffeine. The most important plant drug in the 20th century was Artemether, which was used to treat malaria; it’s endoperoxide group is essential to its function.
Cannabinoids have become of recent interest to serve as new potential drugs; for example Epidiolex (CBD) is used to treat epilepsy in children. However, there is one large issue with CBD as a drug: its price. For one round of therapy, it costs $65,000.
I really enjoyed Dr. Kinghorn’s presentation, since it connected to my current classes (organic chemistry and biochemistry); many of the drugs he spoke about in his presentation, I had read about in my textbooks, and I was very interested to learn about their plant roots, as well as their discoveries.