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.
Lymphatic endothelium vessels considered less important. Later it was discovered that VEGF-R3 and VEGF-C/VEGF-D were the key growth factors controlling lymphatic endothelial proliferation. Markers of lymphatic endolthelium were not discovered until relatively recently. These being LYVE-1 (Jackson et al.,1999) and podoplanin (Kerjaschki,1999). Endothelium Lymphatic endothelium The lymphatic endothelium is a specialised form of epithelium, distinct from but similar to vascular endothelium. A lymph capillary endothelial cell is distinct from other endothelial cells in that collagen fibers are directly attached to its plasma membrane. Although lymphatics were first described by Hippocrates in 400BC and rediscovered as "milky veins in the gut of a