Article
Recent Advances in Developing Insect Natural Products as Potential Modern Day Medicines
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RATCLIFFE, Norman; AZAMBUJA, Patricia; MELLO, Cícero Brasileiro. Recent Advances in Developing Insect Natural Products as Potential Modern Day Medicines. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, v.2014, Article ID 904958, 21p, 2014.
1741-427X
10.1155/2014/904958
Author
Ratcliffe, Norman
Azambuja, Patrícia
Mello, Cícero Brasileiro
Abstract
in their lives. This overview briefly describes significant recent advances in developing insect natural products as potential
new medicinal drugs. This is an exciting and rapidly expanding new field since insects are hugely variable and have utilised
an enormous range of natural products to survive environmental perturbations for 100s of millions of years. There is thus a
treasure chest of untapped resources waiting to be discovered. Insects products, such as silk and honey, have already been
utilised for thousands of years, and extracts of insects have been produced for use in Folk Medicine around the world,
but only with the development of modern molecular and biochemical techniques has it become feasible to manipulate and
bioengineer insect natural products into modern medicines. Utilising knowledge gleaned from Insect Folk Medicines, this
review describes modern research into bioengineering honey and venom from bees, silk, cantharidin, antimicrobial peptides,
and maggot secretions and anticoagulants from blood-sucking insects into medicines. Problems and solutions encountered in
these endeavours are described and indicate that the future is bright for new insect derived pharmaceuticals treatments and
medicines.