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The Conversation
The Conversation
Ashu Tripathi, Director, Natural Product Discovery Core; Assistant Professor/ Research of Medicinal Chemistry, University of Michigan

Nature is the world's original pharmacy – returning to medicine's roots could help fill drug discovery gaps

Antibiotics FDA
Around 75% of antibiotics, including penicillin and amphotericin B, are derived from natural products. Aphiwat Chuangchoem/EyeEm via Getty Images

While humans evolved over a period of approximately 6 million years, breakthroughs in modern medicine as we know it today got going only in the 19th and 20th centuries. So how did humans successfully survive through millions of years of diseases and illnesses without modern drugs and treatments?

This was a question I came to wonder about when the COVID-19 pandemic reached my family in India in April 2020, when there was very limited access to vaccines and treatments. All of my years working as a biomedical scientist, requiring empirical evidence and formal safety testing before using a treatment, took a back seat as I scrambled for potential therapies from any sources I could find, be it scientific papers or folklore. I was ready to try any experimental or traditional medicine that might have a chance at helping my dad.

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