uni:view: As a pharmacist, how would you simply explain "active substances" to people?

Verena Dirsch: From a pharmaceutical point of view, active ingredients are basically substances that are used to cure, alleviate or prevent diseases, or for diagnostic purposes. Interestingly, the Austrian Medicines Act, which has been in existence since 1983 and serves to ensure drug safety, defines the term "substance" in such a way that, in addition to natural or synthetic chemical substances, it also includes, among other things, plants, microorganisms, or body components. This means that, in purely legal terms, even very complex mixtures are considered to be drugs or active ingredients. It is therefore not at all easy to explain the term active ingredient, and this is bound to confuse one or two first-year students.

uni:view: One of your main research topics is "Mechanisms of action of natural products." Can you explain that briefly?

Verena Dirsch: Substances that nature produces usually have a biological purpose. In other words, it can be assumed that many so-called secondary metabolites from plants or microorganisms have a biological function. Natural substances are therefore very interesting as a source for the search for potential active ingredients. If you also try to find out how they act at the molecular level, you may be able to find new cellular points of attack, so-called targets, for active substances, which is an important topic for drug development. [more]