Natural product to modern discovery of their active ingredients and eventually to the development of new drugs. A large number of currently prescribed drugs have been either directly derived from or inspired by natural products. A few representative examples are listed below. Some of the oldest natural product based drugs are analgesics. The bark of the willow tree has been known from antiquity to have pain relieving properties. This is due to presence of the natural product salicin which in turn may be hydrolyzed into salicylic acid. A synthetic derivative acetylsalicylic acid better known as aspirin is a widely used pain reliever.
Endiandric acid C Endiandric acid C Endiandric acid C, isolated from the tree "Endiandra introrsa", is a well characterized chemical compound. Endiadric acid C is reported to have better antibiotic activity than ampicillin. This genus of trees is in the family Lauraceae. These trees are found in the north-eastern Australian rainforests and other tropical and subtropical regions. However, they are also found in southern Canada and in Chile. Endiandric acid C is also isolated from the species "E. xanthocarpa". Endiandric acids are also found in "Beilschmiedia" trees, which were categorized under the genus "Endiandra", but moved to their own genus as they found