King S R, Tempesta M S
Ethnobotany and Conservation, Shaman Pharmaceuticals Inc., South San Francisco, CA 94080-4812.
Ciba Found Symp. 1994;185:197-206; discussion 206-13. doi: 10.1002/9780470514634.ch14.
Shaman Pharmaceuticals is a development-stage company engaged in developing traditional pharmaceuticals identified through a discovery process focused on isolating active compounds from tropical plants with a history of medicinal use. This process has resulted in two products in clinical trials: Provir, an oral product for the treatment of respiratory viral infections, and Virend, a topical antiviral product for the treatment of herpes. Shaman's drug-discovery process targets specific plants that have been used for medicinal purposes by native peoples. By integrating the sciences of ethnobotany, medicine and plant natural product chemistry, Shaman has been able to achieve time and cost savings for the identification of active compounds and preclinical development of its initial products. Numerous drugs have entered the international pharmacopoeia via the study of ethnobotany and traditional medicine. Two important elements of this approach to drug discovery are the percentage of plants that show activity against specific viral pathogens and the correlation between the folk therapeutic classification of plants used and the percentage of those plants that have shown activity in our antiviral screens. Conservation and direct reciprocity to indigenous communities are important features of Shaman Pharmaceuticals' drug-discovery process.
萨满制药公司是一家处于发展阶段的公司，致力于开发通过发现过程确定的传统药物，该发现过程专注于从有药用历史的热带植物中分离活性化合物。这一过程已产生两种处于临床试验阶段的产品：用于治疗呼吸道病毒感染的口服产品普罗维尔（Provir），以及用于治疗疱疹的局部抗病毒产品维伦德（Virend）。萨满公司的药物发现过程以当地居民用于药用目的的特定植物为目标。通过整合民族植物学、医学和植物天然产物化学等科学，萨满公司在确定活性化合物及其初始产品的临床前开发方面实现了时间和成本的节约。通过对民族植物学和传统医学的研究，许多药物已被纳入国际药典。这种药物发现方法的两个重要要素是对特定病毒病原体显示活性的植物百分比，以及所使用植物的民间治疗分类与在我们的抗病毒筛选中显示活性的那些植物百分比之间的相关性。保护和与土著社区的直接互惠是萨满制药公司药物发现过程的重要特征。
