A huge amount of data has been generated by decades of pharmacognosy supported by the rapid evolution of chemical, biological and computational techniques. How can we cope with this overwhelming mass of information? Reverse pharmacognosy was introduced with this aim in view. It proceeds from natural molecules to organisms that contain them via biological assays in order to identify an activity. In silico techniques and particularly inverse screening are key technologies to achieve this goal efficiently. Reverse pharmacognosy allows us to identify which molecule(s) from an organism is(are) responsible for the biological activity and the biological pathway(s) involved. An exciting outcome of this approach is that it not only provides evidence of the biological properties of plants but can also be applied to compounds from other sources. Thus, reverse pharmacognosy allows to accelerate the R&D of active molecules and ingredients.

Reverse pharmacognosy: From molecules to active ingredients

245th National Meeting (2013)

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