Harnessing the potential of plant biodiversity in health and medicine: opportunities and challenges

Abstract With about 25% of life-saving pharmaceutical drugs derived from plants, unexplored flora offer much promise as a source of new pharmacologically active molecules. Despite the number of challenges associated with plants as a drug discovery source, the thousands to millions of different molecules that plants produce cannot be disregarded in the wake of drug resistance and emerging diseases. This book chapter thus provides an insight of the historical evidence of plants as a source of drugs, with a view to discussing the barriers that limit further research and development in this area, and provides an overview of how these challenges could be overcome. The importance of partnerships among scientists, pharmaceutical industries, and indigenous communities to identify species and isolate compounds, social scientists to assess community needs and ensure community empowerment, and policy makers to produce legislation to guide protection and to develop models for sustainable agriculture and research involving modern biotechnology and chemistry are proposed.