Nature's Wonder Drugs

For nearly a decade, Robert Gow and a team of scientists have been quietly amassing a massive library of botanical compounds.

Gow, a successful real estate entrepreneur and Bonita Springs-based private-equity investor, has been trying to solve the mysteries that big pharmaceutical companies have been unable to unlock despite the fact they've spent billions of dollars in research.

In many cultures, particularly in Asia, compounds from plants are widely used to treat a pantheon of ailments, from sprains to allergies and viruses. But scientists have been stumped by what makes those compounds so effective, how they work and how to make them consistently effective.