| Abstract: | In early Christian times treating the sick was considered as blasphemy, and it had only to be in the hands of the Almighty alone (“Do not meddle in the Almighty's creation”). But by and by people did not take diseases as god‐given, and tried and learned to combat them. For some millenniums only natural “remedies” like herbs, animal, and inorganic products were available. Finally, at the beginning of the 19th century it became possible to isolate pure natural substances from herbs, characterize, and modify them by partial synthesis, in order to optimize efficacy, resorption and side effects.On January 2nd 1874 the total chemical synthesis of drugs in industrial scale began in a mansion in the city of Dresden, when Hermann Kolbe jointly with Rudolf Schmitt and Friedrich von Heyden produced Salicylic acid from phenol and carbon dioxide.Until then this drug substance could only be made from willow bark or the plant Spirea ulmaria. Today many substances of natural origin as well of completely newly structured compounds can be made by total synthesis. Biotechnology, and Gene technology are broadening the methods to prepare new drugs. |
