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From many years, nature has been a source of medical substances. Plants have been used as traditional herbal medicines to treat multiple disorders for a long time. Now the properties of these natural products have inspired the design, discovery of new drugs. Even though drug discovery from medicinal plants remains an important source of novel therapeutic leads, including identifying and executing suitable high throughput screening bioassays, scaling up the supply of bioactive molecules and acquiring plant materials. There are majority of plants that remain unexplored. Investigation of these natural resources takes multi-disciplinary, nationwide and global partnership in designs, synthesis and discovery and drug development techniques. Natural products continue to play an important role in modern drug discovery since ancient time. There are number of know drugs and medicines originated from plants, marine organisms and other natural sources. In recent years, interest in growing, exploring or developing new drugs. However, there are many challenges also, such as difficulty in extraction, limited availability of raw materials and variation in composition. They offer better compatibility and fewer side effects compared to some synthetic drugs. This review focuses on the sources, classification, importance and role of natural products in drug discovery and development. We also discuss the limitations of using natural compounds in modern medicine.