Enzymatic inhibitors from natural sources: A huge collection of new potential drugs

For thousands of years, human beings have used natural products for the treatment of various types of pathologies. Even today, in many developing countries where modern medicines are still not available, many diseases are treated following the indications of traditional local medicine, using plant and algae extracts. Traditional remedies have the advantage of being well tolerated by people but have often shown little effectiveness, mainly because the natural extracts contain a limited dose of the required active molecule, or contain compounds acting as antagonists to it. Therefore, despite the evidence that traditional medicine represents an important resource for the treatment of human diseases, the availability of new potent, targeted and safe drugs represents one of the most important objectives in combating both acute and chronic diseases.