The acquisition of new chemical agents with chemotherapeutic value in the fight of biological disorders is of high importance for the researchers in modern medicine. The screening programme aims at finding sources at biologically active chemical agents for the development of the drugs and at discovering the lead molecules that can be modified through chemical means into useful drugs. This effort is multidisciplinary in nature and involves the active participation of chemists, pharmacologists, toxicologists, clinicians and others. The chemists produce several thousand new compounds involving various chemical methods every year as potential drug. The pharmacologist has numerous ways of screening these compounds in various animal species. Due to limited amount of material generally available initially and high cost of biological testing, it is very difficult in any single laboratory to examine all permuations of these materials. The pharmacologist is, therefore, called upon to make use of his experience and inventiveness to limit the tests to those likely to be most rewarding in existing situation. This necessitates the development of a screening programme for initial detection and some quantifications as well as classification of biological activity. Even though all screening programmes have these amis, no two screening programmes can be identical. The informations obtained by the initial or primary information is predominantly descriptive and qualitative leaving the analytical 'in depth' evaluation to a later stage called the 'followup' or 'secondary screening'.

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