Drugs in the New Millennium: Mother Nature vs. Homo Sapiens?

Cancer, malaria, AIDS, tuberculosis, and their corresponding multi-drug-resistant strains among other diseases have entered into the 21st century as major human medical problems. Since ancient times mankind has dealt with health problems using drugs produced by Nature. The plant kingdom has long been exploited in many aspects and specially as a source of drugs. Indeed, evidence about the first known drug "ephedra" (ephedrine), which was isolated from the plant Ephedra sinica (horsetail), go back to the Bronze Age in China. The impressive chemical diversity found in Nature comes from millions of different living organisms, which often produce powerful bioactive metabolites. This is not surprising, bearing in mind that natural products are the result of a natural "lead optimization" process of many years of evolution and diverse survival mechanisms.