There is Chemistry Here: Part IX. Forest Alkaloids

There is chemistry here is a series of articles that aims to show, in a didactic way, the importance of chemistry and its presence in all the materials and drugs we use on a daily basis. The most important natural products can only be obtained if forests are conserved. This essay is not a comprehensive treatise on alkaloid chemistry, as there are many textbooks detailing and updating this important class of natural products. However, it intends to give a diversified didactic, historical and biological perspective of a selected group of natural alkaloids and how they are used in the treatment of various diseases. Its main purpose is to demonstrate that many of the drugs that are on the market for the treatment of various diseases came from trees, shrubs and subshrubs of forests. This class of natural products has been treating human health for millennia and many of the alkaloids that were discovered in forests came from the knowledge accumulated in the traditional medicine of the different peoples of the world. In forest regions where there is no network of pharmacies, much less doctors, these plants and healers continue to be the only options for treating the health of these peoples. Destroying forests is one more step towards the extinction of biodiversity, excluding the possibility of discovering new natural bioactive substances and, consequently, the extinction of those people who depend so much on forests. Alkaloids represent a large amount of complex and very intriguing natural products, produced by metabolism, especially in the plant kingdom, but also occurring in the animal. Many of these organisms live in forest environments and are widespread in all environments. In view of the complex connections between the production of these metabolites by forest organisms, there is still a need for more research to explain the intersections between alkaloids and life, in the search for explanations of why these various chemical products have such a wide spectrum of activities. biological, as they are products involved in life processes and their diversity is similar to the diversity of life on earth.