The importance of natural products in the prevention and treatment of diseases cannot be overemphasized, because natural products have been a major source of traditional and conventional medicines used globally. The chemistry of natural products played important roles in modern drug design and development due to their biological and physiological actions to human system. Chemical compounds isolated from natural products are known to possess different biological profile and pharmaceutical potentials far beyond the synthetic compounds. The primary aim of this paper is to discuss the sources, importance and challenges of Traditional Medicines (TMs) with emphasis on some important TMs such as Acupunture (which has proved to be effective in relieving variety of pain disorder and high blood pressure), Chinese herb Artemisia annua (Family: Asteraceae) a medicinal plant effective against resistant malaria and Suntherlandia microphylla (Family: Fabaceae) commonly known as cancer bush (used for HIV patients).This review paper also X-rayed the influence of terpenes to human health in areas such as anti-tumorigenic, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and anti-cancers activities of terpenes. This paper also suggested among others, that research institutions in collaboration with Federal and State Governments to fund and redirect their research work on natural products derived pharmaceuticals for sustainable and desirable health care.
Key words: anti-tumor, anti-inflammation, anti-bacterial, natural products, terpenes, traditional medicines
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