总的情况最近二十年来,国外对天然药的研究甚为重视,特别是植物药成分的研究进展更快。在这以前的几十年中,国外对天然药特别是植物药的品种和鉴定工作极为注意;而近年来多偏重于从植物系统分类中找出它们相互间在化学成分上的亲缘关系,从而促进了植物化学分类学这门新学科的发展。对于原来以鉴定药物真伪优劣为目的的植物形态学、组织学的研究,除日本、苏联、印度等几个国家仍相当重视外,其余工业发达的国家则多着重于化学成分的探讨。由于这方面研究工作的迅速进展,使天然药成分化学成为植物化学的一个主要分支,在药物化学这个领域里也是一个最兴盛而丰产的园地。一、寻找新药 General Situation In the last two decades, research on natural medicines has been paid much attention in foreign countries. In particular, research on botanical ingredients has progressed faster. In the past decades, foreign countries paid great attention to the variety and identification of natural medicines, especially botanicals; in recent years, they have focused more on finding out their chemical relationships in the classification of plant systems. The development of the new discipline of phytochemical taxonomy was promoted. For the study of plant morphology and histology for the purpose of identifying the authenticity and inferiority of drugs, with the exception of Japan, the Soviet Union, and India, several countries still pay considerable attention, while other industrially developed countries focus more on chemical composition. Due to the rapid progress in research in this area, the chemical composition of natural medicines has become a major branch of phytochemistry, and it is also one of the most flourishing and productive fields in the field of medicinal chemistry. First, find new drugs