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Man has always used his environment to heal himself. Until 1869 all medicines came mainly from plants (e.g. opium for pain relief, Figure 8.46, Section 8.8.1) or animals (e.g. badger skin and meat to relieve snake or scorpion bites). In 2010, there were 1000 active ingredients in drugs sold in pharmacies, of which 10% were unmodified natural products, 29% were derivatives of natural products (hemisynthesis) and 61% were synthetic products. Using bio-informatics and artificial intelligence methods, an estimated 166 billion different molecules can be prepared by combining 17 atoms comprising C, N, O, S, F, Cl, Br and I, and by applying known synthesis methods and standard stability criteria. By applying medicinal chemistry criteria (structure/biological activity relationships) to this molecular space called GBD17, it is estimated that 10 million of these molecules could become drugs…