The search for new drugs relies not only on the skills of synthetic
organic chemists but also on biologists, ethnobotanists,
and medical researchers. Because there are so many millions
of compounds, it would take too long to start with the elements,
combine them in different ways, and then test them.
Instead, chemists usually start either by drug discovery, the
identifi cation and possibly the modifi cation of promising
medicines that already exist, or by rational drug design, the
identifi cation of characteristics of a target enzyme, virus, bacterium,
or parasite and the design of new compounds to react
with it.
In drug discovery, a chemist usually begins by investigating
compounds that have already shown medicinal value.
A fruitful path is to fi nd a natural product, an organic compound
found in nature, that has been shown to have healing
characteristics. Nature is the best of all synthetic chemists,
with billions of chemicals that fulfi ll as many different needs.
The challenge is to fi nd compounds that have curative powers.
These substances are found in different ways: random or
“blind” collection of samples that are then tested, or collection
of specifi c samples identifi ed by native healers as being
medically effective.