From the Maluku to Molecules

Oliver Kayser is a pharmacist, internationally recognized professor, and natural product researcher at TU Dortmund. He is the author of many scientific publications and textbooks. His great interest lies in medicinal plants and natural products that have fostered the birth of modern drugs. The focus of his work is on researching the biosynthesis of medically significant natural products in plants, which today serve as lead structures for new active ingredients in cancer medicine, neurological diseases, and as antibiotics.

• Morphine – the Gift of Morpheus.- Cocaine – from Drug to Local Anesthetic.- Aspirin – the Most Used Medicine in Human History.- Steroids and the Pill.- Caffeine and Viagra.- Quinine.- Coumarins – from Rat Poison to Medicine for the President.- Natural Products as Starting Materials for Drug Synthesis.- Modern Drug Research.- Are Drugs Only Bad?.- Healing Poisons.