How many pharmaceutical drugs are made from parts of natural ingredients? How to!
Question: Why is it so difficult to find out? For example, aspririn is alleged to be made from the bark of the willow tree.
"Inquiring mind wants To Know"
Answers: Why is it so difficult to find out? For example, aspririn is alleged to be made from the bark of the willow tree.
"Inquiring mind wants To Know"
You can make aspirin from willow bark. You can also make it by mixing salicylic acid with acetic anhydride.
Are they the same?
YES!
Can your body tell the difference?
NO!
Most drugs have their original source in nature. Many times, we drug chemists simply identify its structure, learn to synthesize it, and try to improve it. Some drugs can't be made synthetically. Vancomycin is a perfect example. For drugs like these, we use bacteria to do the synthesis for us. So, would you consider that a natural source? In many cases, we have to unnaturaly modify the bacteria.
Also, I would like to point out that natural does not equal safe. Snake venom is natural. Hemlock is natural. Nightshade is natural. The most powerful neurotoxins in the world are 100% all natural. They're made by toads that live in South America. So don't make the mistake of thinking natural means safe or effective. All that really matters when taking drugs is whether or not they work, and whether or not they're right for your condition.
You would have to take a full course in Pharmacognosy and Medicinal Chemistry to find this out. There are so many thousands of drugs and so many ways to make most of them, you cannot get a simple answer to this question.
-a lot of the estrogen components in menopausal hormones and birth control come from soy, yams, or other plants (and is chemically modified) and in premarin's case, horse urine (some of the most expensive piss you'll ever consume!)
-armour thyroid is basically ground up pig thyroid
-digoxin comes from fox glove?
-many pain releivers come from poppy plants
-atropine comes from night shade
-tamoxifen comes from some tree
-antibiotics originally came from molds, but now they are made synthetically or from genetically engineered bacteria i think and many are chemically modified
-byetta comes from some lizard's saliva
-botox is a paralytic bacterial toxin
-insulin used to come from animals but now is made from genetically engineered bacteria
thats about all i can think of off the top of my head, many many drugs have natural origins but often are either reproduced synthetically to save money or chemically modified to improve characterisitics like potency, absorption, distribution, stability, etc.
and like the guy above said, contrary to popular opinion on yahoo answers it doesnt matter if something is natural or synthetic, what matters is how it interacts with the body. most drugs work by activating or blocking a receptor- so basically they are fake communications to trick the body to do something useful like lower blood pressure, or drying up your runny nose. doesnt matter if that signal is of natural origins, it just matters what the signal does and the body's response.
I am sure there are many 'natural herbs' in many drugs but that is like dropping an eye dropper of food coloring in an ocean and expecting it to stand out in the rest of the water.