This lesson helps students to understand how a medicine based on a traditional botanical source can be synthesized in the laboratory. By the end of the activity students should be able to understand how compounds can be synthesized and realize that slight modifications in chemical structure can alter a substance's effect on an organism.

This lesson is one of 22 on the Teachers' Edition CD-ROM and is provided here as an example. Feel free to print out the materials and try it in your classroom! Teachers' Notes and Student Handouts for all the lesson plans can be printed directly from the CD-ROM. Also available on the CD-ROM are Suggested Readings for all the lessons, including accessible articles and historical accounts, that can be printed for classroom use.