Towards systematically assessing bioactivity of natural compounds or bio - ligands: Cannabidiol as an example

Western medicine by law requires that drugs be synthetic compounds which are mass produced in heavily controlled manufacturing environments. In recent years there has been increasing interest in complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) for treating disease in the United States (e.g., White et al., 2017). Natural, nonvitamin, non-mineral dietary supplements account for a sizeable share of these approaches (17.7% in Clarke, Black, Stussman, Barnes, & Nahin, 2015). Despite their potential efficacy, a very small proportion of patients in the United States use CAM methods as complete replacements for standard pharmaceutical treatment (Nahin, Dahlhamer, & Stussman, 2010). Most CAM users reported taking natural dietary supplements for general wellness and preventative healthcare rather than specific outcomes (Marinac, Buchinger, Godfrey, Wooten, Sun, & Willsie, 2007). One reason is that identifying the dosages required for medicinal plant-derived compounds to treat specific diseases has proven difficult.