Bedoya Luis Miguel, Bermejo Paulina, Abad María José
Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, University Complutense, Ciudad Universitaria s/n, 28040, Madrid, Spain.
Mini Rev Med Chem. 2009 May;9(5):519-25. doi: 10.2174/138955709788167600.
Infectious diseases caused by bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites are still a major threat to public health, despite the tremendous progress in human medicine. New antimicrobials are needed in medicine due to the rapid emergence of new resistant and opportunistic microbes and the increasing number of patients suffering from immunosuppressive situations, e.g., acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, transplantation, cancer, etc Research on new antimicrobial substances must therefore be continued and all possible strategies should be explored. Plants have been a source of therapeutic agents from more than 5000 years. Approximately 25% of modern medications are developed from plants. In the area of infectious diseases, 75% of new drugs originated from natural sources between 1981 and 2002. As less than 10% of the world's biodiversity has been tested for biological activity, many more useful natural lead compounds are awaiting discovery. The Cistaceae family comprises a large number of species, growing in the warm temperate regions of the Mediterranean area, that have been and are still used as medicinal plants, particularly in folk medicine. In the present review, we analyse the past, present and future of medicinal plants of the Cistaceae family present in the Iberian Peninsula, both as potential antimicrobial crude drugs as well as a source of natural compounds that act as new anti-infectious agents.
尽管人类医学取得了巨大进展，但由细菌、真菌、病毒和寄生虫引起的传染病仍然是对公共卫生的重大威胁。由于新的耐药性和机会性微生物迅速出现，以及患有免疫抑制疾病（如获得性免疫缺陷综合征、移植、癌症等）的患者数量不断增加，医学上需要新的抗菌药物。因此，必须继续开展新抗菌物质的研究，并探索所有可能的策略。五千多年来，植物一直是治疗药物的来源。大约25%的现代药物是由植物开发而来的。在传染病领域，1981年至2002年间75%的新药源自天然来源。由于世界上不到10%的生物多样性已接受生物活性测试，还有更多有用的天然先导化合物有待发现。半日花科包含大量物种，生长在地中海地区的暖温带，过去和现在都被用作药用植物，尤其是在民间医学中。在本综述中，我们分析了伊比利亚半岛半日花科药用植物的过去、现在和未来，它们既是潜在的抗菌粗药，也是作为新型抗感染剂的天然化合物来源。
