How Plants Are Made To Medicines?
Science and technology have developed over the years. Through the help of technology, the process of making medicines has become easier. With research, analysis, and technology, scientists are able to create valuable medicines from known medicinal plants to treat various illnesses.
Chemistry is a branch of science that focuses on making molecules and recognizing their functions. Around the world, many chemists make and discover new molecules every day. However, the best chemist in the world may be nature. Plants, insects, fungi, and bacteria all contain thousands of chemical compounds, many of which are biologically active, which means that their interaction with organisms can cause diseases and even better cure diseases. Therefore, many scientific activities aim to find, isolate, identify, and replicate natural products.
Take the search for new drugs as an example. Though other methods have now been proven to be successful, phenotypic screening (screens that provide measurable signals) have been used to develop many first-class drugs (with novel and unique mechanisms) from compounds found in medicinal plants.
Isolation
Methods of isolation are generally based on fairly old technology. A basic initial step can be to grind the plants in a mortar, add liquid, and filter to isolate solubles from insolubles. The subsequent separation can be accomplished using various chromatographic techniques. The main basis for these techniques is that dissolved compounds move through a filter at varied speeds. Other commonly used methods are distillation and solvent extraction. Distillation is removing a compound from a heated liquid when it reaches the boiling point. Solvent extraction based on the fact that certain compounds are more soluble in one liquid than another.
Analysis
After you have isolated the compound, you will want to know what it does. Analytical chemists have many tools to find out. By far the most crucial is the published literature. These recorded chemical databases enable scientists to browse through numerous publications and get significant facts. It is simple enough to calculate the molecular weight and figure out other elements in a compound but the structure is very complicated.
To identify the compound, it is essential to find out which atoms it includes and how they are arranged and linked together. This has an effect on properties like solubility, acidity. and its potential to connect to another compound. Detection can entail analytical approaches and the use of technologies like X-ray crystallography, computer modeling, and others.
What is the function of this compound?
To test what a compound can do, the simplest approach is by way of in vitro or “in glass”. The compound could be introduced to a living cell or proteins under various conditions while closely observing the result. When the results are positive, the later can be tested in vivo or through live organisms such as mice or fish.
Synthesis
Among the challenges of creating medicines from raw materials is keeping a supply. Certain plants are difficult to grow and compounds found in it are often in low concentrations therefore, this could be costly. Kratom raw materials are one of those rare plants that are limited in supply. That’s why there are very few kratom vendors out there because of the limited supply of raw materials.
For an in-depth study of compounds and for testing new medicines, there should be large quantities readily available. Natural compounds found in nature have very sophisticated structures and often more than twenty reactions are required before a precise duplicate of the organic product is produced effectively.