Souce of crude drug

 Different sources of crude drugs are.

1. Plant source
2. Animal source
3. Marine source
4. Tissue culture and RNA technology
5. Mineral source

1. Plant source:
 It is the oldest source of drugs. Most of the drug is obtained from plants.
Many plants/plant families contain biological active substance such as,
Lubitae  tulsi, pudina etc
Rutaceae  lemon

 Almost all parts of the plants are used as crude drug i.e., leaves, stem,
bark, flower, fruits, and roots etc.

 Leaves: plants have used as a source of crude drugs.

Examples,
i. Tobacco leaves give nicotine
ii. Digitalis leaves gives digitoxin and digoxin, which are cardiac
glycoside.

 Flowers: plants flower used as a source of drugs

Examples,
i. cloves gives Eugenol
ii. Rose give rose water, used as tonic etc
 Fruits: sennapod fives Antracin, which is used as purgative and
laxatives.
 Seeds: used as a source of drugs
Eg, Vomica seeds give stychine, which is CNS stimulant.
 Roots: rauwolfia serpentine gives reserpine, used for hypertension
treatment.
 Stem: chandrdendrum tomentosum gives tuboqurarine, which is skeletal
muscle relaxant used in general anesthesia.
2. Animal source:
Many parts of a animals are a good source of drug and also some tissue/animal
are used in manufacturing of drug.
Eg,
i. isolation of insulin, from a pancrease. Used in treatment of diabetetes.
ii. Blood of animals is used in preparation of vaccines.
iii. Sheep thyroid is a source of thyroxin, which is used in hypertension.
iv. Cod liver oil derived from a cod fish, used as a source of vit A, vit D.

3. Marine sources:
 Ocean/seas contain about 5 lacs types of species, which termed as marine
species.
 Many of these species show biological activity and used as a source of
drugs
Eg,
Seaweed contain iodine, so it is used in treatment of iodine deficiency disease
such as goitre.
4. Mineral source:
Drugs from mineral sources includes both metallic and non metallic substances
like kaolin, chalk, bentonite, talc, borax and many more minerals and their salts.
Eg,
 Ferrous sulphate in iron deficiency anaemia
 Magnesium sulphate as purgative
 Zinc oxide ointment as skin protectant(in wounds and eczema).
 Gold salt used in treatment of arthritis.
5. Tissue culture and RNA technology:
 Tissue culture is the process in which “in-vivo cultivation of plants cells
and animal cell under aseptic and controlled environment condition”.
 Tissue culture is growth of tissue or cells(plants and animals) in an
artificial medium separate from parent organism.
 It is used for production of primary and secondary metabolite to regulate
plants.
Eg,
By using tissue culture tecghnique, following metabolites canbe formed –
alkaloids like tropaine, cocaine,
 Recombinant DNA technology involves cleavage of DNA by enzyme
restriction endonucleases. The desired gene is coupled to rapidly
replicating DNA (viral, bacterial or plasmid). The new genetic
combination is inserted into the bacterial cultures which allow production
of vast amount of genetic material. Important example is Human insulin
is produced by modification of porcine insulin or by bacteria using
recombinant DNA technology. Few others include Somatotrophin,
Erythropoietin, Human blood coagulation factors etc.