[Alkaloids and industry today]

The importance of alkaloids and heterosides extracted from plants is clearly established. A specialised industry makes them available to drug companies by means of technological processes which now make a wide range of extractions possible. Due to the large investments in equipment and raw materials, the procedures and processes must be optimised so that each extraction corresponds to a specific procedure dictated by a large number of parameters. Competitivity is only obtained at this cost. The raw material is the major limitation: because of the variability of drugs and because of economic factors which include the risk of falsifications. The large sums of money invested mean that a greater financial support, from outside of the company, will probably be necessary in the future, which is likely to fragilise the company.