[Plant extracts in drug discovery: traditional considerations, novel possibilities]

Natural product based drug discovery, especially for strategies, based on plant extracts has several and almost traditional arguments. In practice, however, keeping in mind the interest of cost, the chemical diversity and the biological potential provided by secondary plant metabolites could be reached only by rational and harmonized adoption and application of related disciplines and technologies. New and relevant approaches and solutions are presented in this review regarding the accessible way, starting with the collection and extraction of plant material, via the robust high throughput biological screening (HTS) of extracts, reaching isolation, structure elucidation and development phase of the active principle. Special emphasis was made on applications, achieving HTS-compatible extracts and on on-line analytical technics, speeding up the complete isolation process. In addition, beside reviewing international trends and case studies, the results of the examination of the plant extract library of Gedeon Richter Plc. are published as well.