Background: Natural products play a key role in drug discovery programs, both serving as drugs and as templates for the synthesis of drugs, even though the quantities and availabilities of samples for screening are often limitted.
Experimental approach: A current collection of physical samples of > 500 compound derived from African medicinal plants aimed at screening for drug discovery has been made by donations from several researchers from across the continent to be directly available for drug discovery programs. A virtual library of 3D structures of compounds has been generated and Lipinski's "Rule of Five" has been used to evaluate likely oral availability of the samples.
Results: A majority of the compound samples are made of flavonoids and about two thirds (2/3) are compliant to the "Rule of Five". The pharmacological profiles of thirty six (36) selected compounds in the collection have been discussed.
Conclusions and implications: The p-ANAPL library is the largest physical collection of natural products derived from African medicinal plants directly available for screening purposes. The virtual library is also available and could be employed in virtual screening campaigns.