文章展望了从天然产物中创制新药的发展趋势。单味中草药有效成分的研究重点将转向瞄准质控的中药复方化学成分研究。进入21世纪，中国天然药物研究要在国际上占有重要位置，突破口便是中药复方现代化，其关键之一便是化学（有效）成分研究。从中草药中发现有效成分或先导物必须采用化学成分与生物活性研究融为一体的机制，采用高通量筛选，目标就是寻找有效成分或先导物进而创制新药。长短结合，正确处理知识创新和新药开发的关系。知识创新须体现在创制新药的应用基础研究中，是产生巨大效益的理论基础；短程开发是知识累积水平的体现，是科研经费的必要补充和保证。改革传统天然产物化学研究模式，实施以当代最先进大型谱仪为先导的天然产物研究战略。

The search for bioactive constituents or leading compounds from natural sources especially from Chinese herbal medicine has proved to be one of the most effective ways for the development of new drugs. This paper describes the progress in creating new drugs based on researches on natural products chemistry for many years and some interesting new trends emerging from recent literature.

The key point of study on the chemical constituents of individual Chinese herbal medicine has to be shifted to composite Chinese medicine especially for quality control in the future. The main theme of modernization for Chinese traditional medicine in the coming century will be the comprehensive study of the chemical constituents of composite Chinese medicine. Study on the bioactive principle of Chinese herbal medicine involves an integration of chemical study and bioassay with high throughput screening. It should be emphasized that the investigation of bioactive compounds for creating new drugs is the major task of the whole field. An intimate combination of basic study and drug development should be accomplished under a well-warrantee policy. Natural product research should be featured by the application of modern spectroscopic techniques, such as HPLC/MS/MS and HPLC/NMR and so on.