Friedrich Wilhelm Sertürner (1783–1841), Pierre-Joseph Pelletier (1788–1842), Joseph Bienaimé Caventou (1795–1877)
Herbs, the primary source of drugs for thousands of years, are typically classified from a biomedical perspective on the basis of the chemistry of their active constituent. Of these constituents, the alkaloids are the largest in number and variety and are of greatest biological interest. Experts have found it difficult to precisely define alkaloids, but they are naturally occurring compounds, usually of plant origin, that typically contain a basic nitrogen within a ring molecular structure. Their chemistry, biological effects, and medical uses are far too varied to describe here even briefly, but they have one thing in common: chemists have agreed to end all alkaloid names with the suffix -ine.
Why do plants manufacture alkaloids? It seems reasonable to assume that it’s not to provide humans with potential medicines. Rather, the bitter taste or toxicity conferred by the alkaloids may protect the plant against insects and herbivores. Alternatively, alkaloids may be synthesized as by-products of the normal chemical reactions that occur within plants.
Plants that are highly biologically active and even poisonous have attracted the keenest interest of scientists and physicians seeking potential drugs for the treatment of disease. In the early nineteenth century, laboratory procedures permitted the extraction and isolation of active chemicals, most notably alkaloids, from their natural sources. The first and arguably the most important of these was by the German apothecary apprentice Friedrich Sertürner, who, in 1806, isolated the alkaloid morphine from the opium poppy. In fewer than two decades, French chemists Pierre-Joseph Pelletier and Joseph Bienaimé Caventou proceeded to isolate strychnine (1818), atropine (1831), and quinine (1820), among other alkaloids. Throughout this book, several dozen other examples of alkaloids—including their modifications and improvements in the laboratory to increase effectiveness or reduce toxicity—are presented.
SEE ALSO Morphine (1806), Strychnine (1818), Quinine (1820), Codeine (1832), Atropine (1831), Physostigmine (1875), Scopolamine (1881), Cocaine (1884).
Chemical procedures developed during the early nineteenth century enabled scientists to isolate and extract active chemicals from their plant sources. Of greatest interest and medical promise were alkaloids, which are often responsible for the medicinal and toxicological effects of biologically active plants.