Plant made pharmaceuticals (PMPs)- development of natural health products from bio-diversity

Plant made pharmaceuticals have been used as major component of therapeutic agents and sources of chemical diversity in drug discovery programs. In recent years, renewed interest has been shown in the use of medicinal plants and traditional medicine as phytomedicines and Nutraceuticals. Pushed by the accelerating search for new active ingredients, pharmaceutical companies are actively screening medicinal plants for potential new active substances. The rationalization of the new multi-drug and multi-target concept of therapy in classical medicine will have also great implication on the future basic research in phytomedicine and an evidence based Phytotherapy. It requires a concerted cooperation between phytochemists, molecular biologists, pharmacologists and clinicians with the aim to use modern high-tech methods for the standardization of phytopreparation, to integrate new molecular biological assays into the screening of plant extracts and plant constituents and to increase the efforts into the efficacy proof of phytopreparations by controlled clinical trials which should be paralleled or followed pharmacokinetic and bioavailability studies.