okay i think it's time to turn down the
morphine drip welcome to watch mojo and
today we're counting down our picks for
the top 10 drugs that exist in nature
artemisinin was first discovered and
successfully extracted in china in a
letter she said the medicine has helped
china completely eradicate malaria for
this list we're looking at some of the
most surprising and best drugs and
medicines formed from something in the
natural world do you have a favorite
medicinal plant let us know below
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number 10. galantamine
in the 1950s galantimine was first
isolated from the bulb of the common
snowdrop also known as galanthus novalis
however it's now been found in a range
of snowdrop varieties this alkaloid
substance was discovered to be able to
cross the blood-brain barrier as such it
was realized that galantamine could
impact people who have dementia and
alzheimer's galantamine can slow down
the progression of these diseases by
ebbing the decline of the brain's
ability to transmit chemical messages
like with most treatments sadly there
are side effects the most common are
gastrointestinal issues such as nausea
and diarrhea there's also research into
how glantamine could help autistic
people while proteins in snowdrops are
being examined as a possible treatment
for hiv
number nine avermectin
in 1978 streptomyces avermatillus an
actomycete which is a type of bacteria
was isolated at the kitazito institute
from a soil sample in japan in 2015
william c campbell and satoshi omora
were awarded a nobel prize in physiology
or medicine due to their work in
discovering avermectin from the bacteria
avermectin is a series of anti-parasitic
drugs and pesticides that combat
parasitic worms and insect pests in both
humans and animals some of the parasitic
diseases that were significantly lowered
from this discovery include river
blindness and lymphatic filariasis one
avermectin medicine that became well
known for misinformation was ivermectin
it was wrongly believed to help with the
effects of covid19 even though
ivormectum is a good drug for some
parasites it has not been shown in a
well-controlled placebo-controlled trial
to be effective in covid number eight
artemisinin
tu yu-yo received a nobel prize for her
work in discovering artemisinin a group
of drugs that primarily combat malaria
she found this in 1972 when she
extracted the substance from the plant
sweet wormwood also known as artemisia
annua hence the name artemisinin for
years healers primarily in china have
used sweet wormwood to help treat high
fevers hemorrhoids and malaria with the
last one being something two was able to
confirm while artemisinin is very
effective in treating malaria the cost
of creating it the effort required and
the poor availability of sweet wormwood
creates significant hurdles to overcome
number 7. statins
this class of drugs is known as lipid
lowering medications which means they
reduce things like cholesterol in the
bloodstream primarily statins are used
to reduce the risk and effects of heart
disease like angina and possible heart
attacks before statins came along most
high cholesterol patients were treated
with a low-fat diet which can be hit or
miss with its effectiveness in the 1970s
and 80s an international group of
scientists from japan the uk and the us
were working on this issue they
discovered that certain fungi gave off
an enzyme that would become the
precursor for statin production these
fungi were penicillium citrinum and
aspergillus terius statin medication was
eventually approved in the u.s in 2001.
the cholesterol's probably a little high
but you know they have medicine for that
night number six vancomycin
in 1953
american chemist edmund kornfeld was
examining a soil sample that was
collected by a missionary from the
jungles of borneo kornfeld discovered
the bacteria amicolatopsis orientalis
produced a compound capable of
destroying penicillin-resistant
staphylococci originally given the dull
name of compound o5865
it was soon changed to vancomycin
however vancomycin is notoriously hard
to create as the compound needs to be
purified an early non-pure version
nicknamed mississippi mud from its dark
brown color had side effects of kidney
damage and hearing loss as a result
vancomycin typically won't be the first
medicine tried to cure bacterial
infections like endocarditis and
meningitis but pure versions have been
shown to be effective
number 5. cyclosporine
while examining soil samples from norway
in 1971 scientists discovered the fungus
polypocladium inflatum they soon saw it
produced cyclosporin which has an
immunosuppressive effect that meant this
medication could be vital for those
requiring organ transplants to reduce
the chance of rejection by 1980
cyclosporin which is spelled numerous
different ways was used in trials for
liver transplant patients before
cyclosporin patients had a survival rate
of 50 after a year after using it that
increased to 80 percent cyclosporine was
soon approved as a medicine in the u.s
and it's even on the world health
organization's list of essential
medicines other illnesses that
cyclosporin treats include crohn's
disease psoriasis and rheumatoid
arthritis
number four aspirin
if you were to have any of the drugs
mentioned in this list within your
bathroom cabinet it would likely be
aspirin people didn't have headaches
what would happen to the aspirin
industry also known as acetylsalicylic
acid or asa its creation was inspired by
the use of salicylic acid that's located
in the bark and leaves of willow trees
in this form this medicine has been
treating people since the days of
ancient egypt when they chewed on the
leaves and twigs of the tree in 1853
french chemist chal frederick gerhart
combines sodium salicylate and
acetylchloride to create aspirin in its
more modern form aspirin traditionally
treats pain inflammation and fever but
it's also been used to treat other
illnesses such as rheumatic fever
kawasaki disease and pericarditis but i
did start taking baby aspirin to reduce
my risk for heart attack that makes
sense gotta keep an eye on it you know
number three vinblastine and vincristine
the madagascar periwinkle or
catharanthus rosius is a plant that
produces two life-saving treatments
first we have vinblastine first isolated
in 1958
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it was discovered that it reduced the
number of white blood cells within the
body with that in mind vinblastine has
been used in chemotherapy to treat
several types of cancers the other
medication is vincristine which was
isolated in 1961 after seeing a similar
reaction to vinblastine vincristine has
also been used in chemotherapy to tackle
various cancer forms in some cases it's
increased the survival rates from 10 to
95
interestingly scientists were first
looking at the periwinkle for combating
diabetes and stumbled across this vital
use by accident
number two morphine
the papaver somniferum or opium poppy
has had a big impact on humans when it
comes to pain morphine was first
isolated by german pharmacist friedrich
zertorner in 1806. he spent nine years
experimenting with it on himself three
dogs three young boys and a mouse he
noted the potential danger of the drug
during this zertorner also gave it its
name inspired by the greek god of dreams
morpheus another opiate from the same
plant is codeine a weaker variant of
morphine codeine was first isolated by
french chemist pierre jearbike in 1832
then looking to develop a non-addictive
version of morphine in 1874 english
chemist charles wright instead created
heroin also known as diamorphine
number one penicillin
this is probably the most famous case of
accidentally stumbling onto a medical
marvel in 1928 scottish physician
alexander fleming returned to his
laboratory after a vacation he then
examined his culture plates of
staphylococcus he had left out and
realized one was open inside a mold had
gotten in and had amazingly stopped the
spread of the bacteria this mold was
penicillium rubens while mold has been
used to treat infections for centuries
this remarkable observation led to one
of the world's first antibiotic
medications with penicillin in 1942
since then an estimated 200 million
lives at least have been saved thanks to
this accidental discovery
if certain british doctors never asked
what is this fungus we wouldn't today
have penicillin correct
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