Pharmaceuticals: Natural Products and Natural Product Models

Abstract Natural products have played a vital role in the treatment of human ailments for thousands of years and continue to play a big role in the modern discovery of new agents for the treatment of diseases today. In certain therapeutic areas, natural products account for almost all key modern medicine used today. Many drugs are formulated and used directly as they are found in nature, some are derived directly from natural products by semisynthesis, and others are modeled after natural products. In this overview, examples of the pharmaceutically important natural products have been summarized.