Which drugs come form plants and microorganisms?

These are the drugs which come from plants :

  • Opium poppy (heroin, morphine, codeine)
  • Blue agave (Tequila)
  • Coca leaves (cocaine)
  • Ephedra sinica (Sudafed, meth)
  • Psilocybin mushroom (shrooms)
  • Willow bark (aspirin)
  • Sassafras root (ecstasy)
  • Penicillium mold (penicillin)

These are the drugs which come form micro organisms :

  • Belladonna alkaloids
  • Cinchona alkaloids
  • Cocaine alkaloids
  • Ergot alkaloids
  • Opium alkaloids
  • Rauwolfia alkaloids
  • Xanthine alkaloids

Why drugs need to be tested before they are prescribed?

The reason why drugs need to be tested is similar to why most things are tested; it is to make sure the drug doesn’t cause any harm to the body and if the drug actually work for the reason why they are being prescribed.

Describe the main steps in the development and testing of a new drug?                                                             Give reasons for different parts of drug testing? (2 questions in 1 answer)

New drugs have to be tested otherwise it could be harmful towards a human. The way they would test it is by testing the drug on a computer model and human cells grown in the laboratory. This is the common part were most drugs fail the test as the drug either damage the cells or don’t work. This is an important part of the drug testing because if it was testing straight onto a human the human would be risking his life potentially. If the drug pass this part of the drug testing it would later on be tested on human volunteers. This is the part of the testing were side effects become known. This is also another important part of drug testing as the drug is now being tested on a real human being and this would let the doctors would know much more clearly the outcome of this drug. So Drug development is an expensive procedure and takes quite a while before you can prescribe i.