"The Forest is his Pharmacy" - the Research of Brazilian Plants to Combat Tropical Diseases in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

Abstract:The isolation of the first pure substances from the plant kingdom began in the nineteenth century. During this century the majority of the work involved extraction especially organic acids and bases which later received the designation of alkaloids. Some plant species have been studied in Brazil since the nineteenth century for the treatment of diseases that were later classified as tropical diseases, including malaria and yellow fever.This paper aims to present the studies carried out by Bernardino Antonio Gomes (1768-1823), José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva (1763-1838) and Ezequiel Corrêa dos Santos (1801-1864) with Brazilian plants (cinchona of Rio de Janeiro and pau-pereira) for the treatment of intermittent fevers and malaria.Keywords: Bernardino Antônio Gomes; Ezequiel Correa dos Santos; José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva; quina; pau-pereira. ResumoO isolamento das primeiras substâncias puras do reino vegetal começa a acontecer no século XIX. Este século caracteriza-se pelos trabalhos de extração, principalmente de ácidos orgânicos e de bases orgânicas, as quais mais tarde receberam a denominação de alcaloides. Algumas espécies vegetais brasileiras foram estudadas desde o século XIX para o tratamento de doenças que mais tarde seriam classificadas como doenças tropicais, entre as quais a malária e a febre amarela.Este trabalho tem como objetivo apresentar os estudos realizados por Bernardino Antônio Gomes (1768-1823), José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva (1763-1838) e Ezequiel Correa dos Santos (1801-1864) com plantas brasileiras (quina do Rio de Janeiro e pau-pereira) para o tratamento de febres intermitentes e da malária. Palavras-chave:Bernardino Antônio Gomes; Ezequiel Correa dos Santos; José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva; quina; pau-pereira.* Unive sidadeàFede alàdoàRioàdeàJa ei o,àI stitutoàdeàQuí i a,àCe t oàdeàTe ologia,àBlo oàá,àCEPà -,à

Natural Products as Source of Potential Dengue Antivirals

“…During the last decades, researchers have turned their attention to nature, trying to identify compounds that can be used as dengue antivirals. In fact, nature is a fantastic reservoir of substances that can be used directly as pharmaceuticals or can serve as lead structures that can be optimized towards the development of new therapeutic agents [16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23].…”