Tag: Natural source

The discovery of rapamycin reads like a true scientific odyssey, starting with a 1964 Canadian medical expedition to a remote island. **Is there a natural source of rapamycin?** Yes, this potent and versatile macrolide compound is naturally produced by the soil-dwelling bacterium *Streptomyces hygroscopicus*, which was famously isolated from a soil sample taken from Easter Island, known as Rapa Nui. From this natural origin, rapamycin has become a cornerstone of modern medicine, with applications spanning immunosuppression, cancer therapy, and longevity research.

The broad-spectrum antibiotic known as chloramphenicol was first isolated in 1947 from a sample of soil from Venezuela. Its discovery was a landmark event in medicine, tracing the origins of a powerful drug directly back to a microorganism, revealing that the natural source of chloramphenicol is the soil-dwelling bacterium *Streptomyces venezuelae*. While the drug is now produced synthetically, its roots in nature are a key part of its pharmacological history.

The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for the discovery of avermectin, the compound from which ivermectin is derived [1.9.4]. So, what is the natural source of ivermectin and how did this discovery change modern medicine?

For thousands of years, an herbal preparation known as ma huang in traditional Chinese medicine has been used to treat respiratory ailments. The key active compound in this plant, and the answer to the question 'What is the naturally occurring ephedrine?', is the alkaloid ephedrine, derived primarily from species of the *Ephedra* plant genus.