Herbal medicine in healthcare--an overview.

It is generally accepted by all concerned that modern pharmaceuticals will remain out of reach of many people and 'health for all' may only be realized by the use of adequately assessed herbal products. Mankind has been using herbal medicine for healing right from the beginning of human civilization. With the advent of 'modern medicine' herbal products have been looked down upon, especially by western societies.

Prismatomerin, a new iridoid from Prismatomeris tetrandra. Structure elucidation, determination of absolute configuration, and cytotoxicity.

A new complex iridoid, prismatomerin (1), has been isolated from the leaves of Prismatomeris tetrandra, together with the known glucoside gaertneroside (4). The structures of 1 and 4 were determined by spectroscopic analysis, notably 2D NMR techniques. The (1R,5S,8S,9S,10S)-(-) absolute configuration of prismatomerin (1) was determined by comparison of the vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectrum calculated using density functional theory and the experimental VCD spectrum of the O-acetyl derivative 3.