In vitro metabolism studies of natural products are crucial in the early development of medicines

Finding new drugs is imperative especially in the case of diseases such as serious infections and cancer, for which a gap in drug development exists. plant-derived compounds display large structural diversity and constitute a source of novel medicinal agents. however, some drug candidates have failed in advanced stages of clinical and commercial use. in vitro tools have been effectively used to anticipate and to explore undesirable drug properties during early drug development. in this review, we address the purpose and advantages of conducting metabolic studies on natural products, and we describe how in vitro metabolism methods have contributed to delineating plant-based drug candidates. we also deal with the applications of in vitro metabolism studies on natural product-based drug development, which include characterization of the metabolites, investigation into enzymatic kinetics, prediction of drug clearance, phenotyping studies, and evaluation of natural product–drug interactions.