6^th World Congress on Natural Products, Medicinal Plants and Traditional Medicines September 18-19, 2019 | ANA Crowne Plaza Narita | Tokyo, Japan

Natural products (secondary metabolites) have been the most successful source of leads for potential drug discovery. Natural products have been well documented for their medicinal uses for thousands of years. Plants have evolved and adapted over millions of years to withstand bacteria, insects, fungi and weather to produce unique, structurally diverse secondary metabolites. Their ethno pharmacological properties have been used as a primary source of medicines for early drug discovery. Macro and micro fungi have been part of human life for thousands of years. They were used as food (mushrooms), in preparation of alcoholic beverages (yeasts), medication in traditional medicine and for cultural purposes.

Most of today's drugs were derived from medicinal plants.  Modern scientific investigations have substantiated many of the early uses of medical plants, and have increasingly found ways to use them in treating modern diseases. Plants have been the basis for medical treatments through much of human history, and such traditional medicine is still widely practiced today.

Today about 80% of the world’s population rely predominantly on plants and plant extracts for healthcare (4). In addition, of the top 150 proprietary drugs used in the United States of America (USA), 57% contain at least one major active compound currently or once derived from plants. According to data released by the World Health Organization (WHO), ethnomedicine has maintained its popularity in all regions of the developing world and its use is rapidly expanding in the industrialized countries.

Up to 50% the approved drugs during the last 30 years are from either directly or indirectly from natural products and in the area of cancer, over the time frame from around the 1940s to date, of the 175 small molecules 85 actually being either natural products.

Plant-derived medicines are dispensed in the form of crude drugs like tinctures, teas, powders, poultices, and other herbal preparations. This eventually serves as the basis of the current modern drug discovery.

It has been estimated that about 80-85% of population both in developed and developing countries rely on traditional medicine for their primarily health care needs and it is assumed that a major part of traditional therapy involves the use of plant extracts or their active principles. In several countries, traditional medicine is still in vogue, and in fact, has been gaining more acceptability for treatment of chronic ailments. This is especially true for countries like India and China, which have a long tradition of fairly well-organized traditional therapy. About 20% of the population of the US takes herbal products, often in the absence of good evidence of their effectiveness.

Herbals have been utilized for health and restorative purposes for a few a great many years, majority of people still using herbal medicine to meet their wellbeing needs. Therapeutic plants are critical hotspots for pharmaceutical manufacturing. Medicinal plants and herbal medicines having most elevated market in Asia since decade, therapeutic plants can be utilized as food to meet every day necessities of body.

The art or practice of using herbs and herbal remedies to maintain health and to prevent, alleviate, or cure disease—called also herbalism. They are used for treating anxiety, depression, Healing, ache and many more. There are different types of herbs like Anti Inflammatory Herbs, Smoking Herbs, Fertility Herbs, Adopt genic herbs, Healing Herbs. There are also different types of herbal products used in various forms some of them are Herbal Tea, Herbal Hair Products, Herbal Cigarettes, Herbal Antibiotics, and Herbal Toothpastes.

With the high increase in the use of herbal medicines worldwide and the rapid expansion of the global market for these products, the safety and quality of medicinal plant materials and herbal medicinal products have become a major concern for health authorities, pharmaceutical industries and the public. The global botanical and plant-derived drug market was valued at $21.4 billion in 2011 and should reach $22.1 billion in 2012. Total market value is expected to reach $26.6 billion in 2017 after increasing at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.7%.

Traditional Medicine is a system of primary health care that includes acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, remedial massage, exercise and breathing therapy and diet and lifestyle advice. In Australia, the most popular forms of TCM health care are acupuncture and Herbal Medicine. It has an uninterrupted history of development in China and other parts of East Asia dating back thousands of years. 

Alternative medicines utilization started in the mid of nineteenth century. Amid this time, alternative medical practitioners picked up prevalence and started to contend with conventional medical experts. Alternative medicine provides great healing effects as scientific medicine. Alternative medicine may treat as complimentary methods that improve the efficacy of treatment. Due to its healing effects Alternative Medicine usage is increasing more frequently.

 Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) market is rapidly developing since later of 1990s. In 2010, the output value of TCM amounted to RMB317.2 billion (about €36.8 billion), which increased 24%. The net yield and profits of TCM production is much higher than the average for the country's medical industry. The total TCM market in China will rise to €96,2 billion in 2025.

The report of this is expected to generate a revenue of USD 196.87 billion by 2025, as per the latest report by Grand View Research, Inc. Factors such as the increase in adoption of alternative medicine by people combined with the government initiatives of a number of key countries to enhance reach is expected to help in expansion revenue generation avenues.

Ayurveda is an ancient Alternative healthcare system of natural and holistic medicine, it is created from Vedas. All Ayurveda writings are composed in Sanskrit, When translated from Sanskrit, Ayurveda means “the science of life” (the Sanskrit root ayur means “longevity” or “life” and veda means “science”). Ayurveda analyse the disease by heartbeat, tongue, discourse, touch, appearance, vision, pee, stool.

Ayurvedic physicians prescribe individualized treatments, including compounds of herbs or proprietary ingredients, and diet, exercise, and lifestyle recommendations. Ayurvedic products are made either of herbs only or a combination of herbs, metals, minerals, or other materials in an Ayurvedic practice called rasa shastra

Homeopathy is a system of medicine, which believes in a specialized method of treatment of curing diseases by administration of potency drugs, which have been experimentally proved to possess the power of producing similar artificial systems on human beings.

Homeopathic remedies are derived from substances that come from plants, minerals, or animals, such as red onion, arnica (mountain herb), crushed whole bees, white arsenic, poison ivy, belladonna (deadly nightshade), and stinging nettle. Homeopathic remedies are often formulated as sugar pellets to be placed under the tongue; they may also be in other forms, such as ointments, gels, drops, creams, and tablets. Treatments are “individualized” or tailored to each person—it is not uncommon for different people with the same condition to receive different treatments.

Siddha science is a traditional treatment system generated from Tamil culture. Palm leaf manuscripts say that the Siddha system was first described by Lord Shiva to his wife Parvati. Parvati explained all this knowledge to her son Lord Muruga. He taught all these knowledge to his disciple sage Agasthya. Agasthya taught 18 Siddhars and they spread this knowledge to human beings.

Siddha system of medicine emphasize that medical treatment is oriented not merely to disease, but also has to take into account the patient, environment, age, habits, physical condition. Siddha literature is in Tamil and it is largely practiced in Tamil speaking parts of India and abroad.

Unani System of medicine is based on established knowledge and practices relating to promotion of positive health and prevention of diseases. Although Unani system originated in Greece, passed through many countries, Arabs enriched it with their aptitude and experience and the system was brought to India during Medieval period. Unani System emphasise the use of naturally occurring, most herbal medicines, though it uses ingredients of animal and marine origin.

Natural products played critical roles in modern drug development, especially for antibacterial and antitumor agents. Even though popularity of the synthetic products increased due to its production cost, time effectiveness, easy quality control, stringent regulation and quick effects, but their safety and efficacy was always remained questionable, resulting in the dependence on the natural products by more than 80% of the total population in the developing world, because of its time tested safety and efficacy. A huge number of natural product-derived compounds in various stages of clinical development highlighted the existing viability and significance of the use of natural products as sources of new drug candidates.

It is necessary to investigate the plants scientifically which have been used in traditional medicine to improve the quality of healthcare. The claim that natural plant products are safe should be accepted only after the plant product passes through toxicity testing using modern scientific methods. To determine the safety of drugs and plant products for human use, toxicological evaluations are carried out on various experimental animals to predict toxicity. There are other several comprehensive toxicological studies on some natural extract.

The global in vitro toxicity testing market was valued at $4 billion in 2011 and more than $4.9 billion in 2012. This market is estimated to reach nearly $9.9 billion in 2017, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.7% for the five-year period, 2012 to 2017.

Ethnopharmacology is a related study of ethnic groups and their use of drugs. Ethnopharmacology is distinctly linked to plant use, ethnobotany, as this is the main delivery of pharmaceuticals. Ethno pharmacology deals with the interdisciplinary studies between medicinal plants and its uses in different cultural for their therapeutic values. It is based on the combination of the chemical, biological, and pharmacological sciences, which have been considered as a useful tool for natural product based drug discovery.

Nutraceuticals are any food, or part of a food supplements, that offers a medical or health benefit beyond simple nutrition. Such benefits may include the prevention or recurrence of disease. These products range from proteins, vitamins, minerals, pure compounds and natural based used in capsules, tablets to foods that contain fortified bioactive ingredients. Everything from vitamins, supplements to sports drinks, dairy products, snacks, and pre-prepared diet meals could be considered as nutraceuticals.

The herbal cosmetics are the preparations containing phytochemical from a variety of botanical sources, which influences the functions of skin and provide nutrients necessary for the healthy skin and hair.

Plants extract, either as pure compounds or as standardized extracts, provide unlimited opportunities for new drug discoveries. Extraction is the crucial step in the analysis of medicinal plants, because it is necessary to extract the desired chemical components from the plant materials for further separation and characterization. Crude Drug will be any regularly occurring, foul substance determined starting with natural alternately inorganic sources for example, plant, animal, bacteria, organs or whole organisms exceptional for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or aversion about ailment over people or other animals. Use and exploration of crude drugs has gained prominence in the medical community. The realization that many completely unknown substances are yet to be discovered from crude drugs has created a new interest in pharmacognosy and has led to many medical breakthroughs.

Pharmacognosy is the study of medicinal drugs derived from plants or other natural sources. The American Society of Pharmacognosy defines pharmacognosy as "the study of the physical, chemical, biochemical and biological properties of drugs, drug substances or potential drugs or drug substances of natural origin as well as the search for new drugs from natural sources

Phytochemistry is the investigation of phytochemicals, which are chemicals gotten from plants. Those considering phytochemistry endeavour to portray the structures of the vast number of auxiliary metabolic mixes found in plants, the elements of these mixes in human and plant science, and the biosynthesis of these mixes. Plants combine phytochemicals for some reasons, including securing themselves against bug assaults and plant sicknesses. Phytochemicals in sustenance plants are regularly dynamic in human science, and much of the time has medical advantages.

Drug discovery represents one of the most promising and highly visible outcomes of marine biotechnology research. Biochemicals produced by marine invertebrates, algae and bacteria, are very different than those from related terrestrial organisms and thus offer great potential as new classes of medicines. To date, examples of marine-derived drugs include an antibiotic from fungi, two closely related compounds from a sponge that treat cancer and the herpes virus, and a neurotoxin from a snail that has painkiller properties making it 10,000 times more potent than morphine without the side effects. However, there are several more marine-derived compounds currently in clinical trials and it is likely that many more will advance to the clinic as more scientists look to the sea for these biotechnological uses. In addition to new medicines, other uses for marine-derived compounds include: cosmetics (algae, crustacean and sea fan compounds), nutritional supplements (algae and fish compounds), artificial bone (corals), and industrial applications (fluorescent compounds from jellyfish, novel glues from mussels, and heat resistant enzymes from deep-sea bacteria).

Primary research and market analysis shows sponges and marine animals to be the largest source of pharmaceutical products. In terms of geography, North America is expected to be the largest market for marine based pharmaceuticals. The history of marine-derived products began from cod-liver oil, shark oil, and calcium supplements. Marine biotechnology has developed over the years propelled by the unmet needs for new and innovative pharmaceutical products. Potential pipeline drugs being developed are anti-viral, anti-cancer drugs from byrozoans, anti-microbial, and anti-inflammatory.