The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 80% of the emerging world’s population relies on traditional medicine for therapy. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 25% of modern drugs used in the United States have been derived from plants. At least 7,000 medical compounds in the modern pharmacopoeia are derived from plants.
Among the 120 active compounds currently isolated from the higher plants and widely used in modern medicine today, 80% show a positive correlation between their modern therapeutic use and the traditional use of the plants from which they are derived. The need for more effective and safer drugs to treat numerous diseases afflicting humans and animals cannot be over emphasized.
The Natural Products Research Group (NatProRG) is a registered research group in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, domiciled in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. The group comprises all the faculty members in the Department and members from related disciplines who are actively involved in Natural Products Research. The research aim of the group is to develop new drugs from natural products that would be effective and safe as anti-infectives, anti-malarials, anti-hypertensives, anti-diabetics, anti-inflammatory, analgesics, immunomodulators, etc. The group would undertake the following research objectives;
- Development of drugs from natural products.
- Screening of medicinal plants and other natural products for pharmacological activity.
- Fractionation, isolation and characterization of plant secondary metabolites responsible for pharmacological activity.
- Identification of lead compounds for new drug molecules.
- Organization of seminars and workshops for registered traditional medical practitioners
- Consultancy services.
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