Natural products research

The majority of promising drug candidates emerging from marine natural products research to date are potential cancer treatments. Six anti-cancer compounds that are either marine natural products or synthetic analogs of marine natural products have made it to clinical trials. The first of these compounds to enter clinical trials was didemnin B (43), one of a family of cyclic depsipetides isolated from the Caribbean tunicate Trididemnum solidum Didemnin B was advanced to Phase II clinical trials for treatment of small cell lung cancer, myeloma, prostate cancer, and melanoma. Unfortunately, no favorable responses were found so the compound has been withdrawn. Crude extracts of another Caribbean tunicate, Ecteinascidia turbinata, showed extremely... 

Indeed, great emphasis was placed on the presentation of compounds in crystalline form for many years, early chromatographic procedures for the separation of natural substances were criticized because the products were not crystalline. None the less, the invention by Tswett (3) of chromatographic separation by continuous adsorption/desorption on open columns as applied to plant extracts was taken up by a number of natural product researchers in the 1930s, notably by Karrer (4) and by Swab and lockers (5). An early example (6) of hyphenation was the use of fluorescence spectroscopy to identify benzo[a]pyrene separated from shale oil by adsorption chromatography on alumina. 

Ali, A. A. Ali, K.E. Fadlalla, A. Khalid, K.E. (2008). The effects of GA oral treatment on the metabolic profile of chronic renal failure patients under regular haemodialysis in Central Sudan. Natural Product Research, Vol.22, No.l, (January 2008), pp.12-21, ISSN 1478-6419. 

Loub WD, Farnsworth NR, Soejarto DD, Quinn ML. NAPRALERT computer handling of natural product research data. J Chem Inf Comput Sci 1985, 25 99-103. 

Steroid chemistry, the glamor area of natural product research in the years following World War II, was replaced by macrolides, alkaloids, and prostanoids. Sterol chemistry again became exciting when an unanticipated rich diversity of marine invertebrate sterols were isolated, notably from sponges. After pioneering research in Italy, the field was reborn in Carl Djerassi s laboratory at Stanford. As a result, we now have a better and more detailed knowledge of sterol biosynthesis than of any other class of marine natural products. The authors of Chapter 1 are Stanford alumni. 

Early natural product research with marine mollusks supported a conclusion that all secondary metabolites of mollusks are diet-derived, which proved to be premature. In fact, the biosynthetic capability of some marine mollusks covers a wide spectrum of chemical classes and substances. Much of this recent insight has resulted from work in the laboratories of the authors of Chapter 3. 

Source Gollin MA. New rules for natural products research, Nature Biotechnology 17 921-922 (1999). 

Brahmachari G (2006) Prospects of natural products research in the 21st century A sketch, hi Brahmachari G (ed). Chemistry of Natural Products Recent Trends and Developments, pp. 1-22, Research Signpost, Trivandrum, India... 

Oberlies NH, Kroll DJ. (2004) Camptothecin and taxol Historic achievements in natural products research. J Nat Prod 67 129-135. 

The extraordinary biological activity of epothilones has spurred interest of scientists around the world. Indeed, several epothilones and many derivatives are currently in different phases of clinical trials for the treatment of various forms of cancer. Also the synthetic community has given a great deal of attention to these remarkable compounds, probably more than to any other compound in the last ten years. This is not very surprising, because in comparison to paclitaxel (which until recently was one of the main success stories of natural products research), the epothilones have a relatively simple structure, which allows easier modification, and they display higher in vitro activity as well as better pharmacokinetic properties. 

Bohlin L, Bruhn JG, Bioassay Methods in Natural Product Research and Drug Development, Kluwer Academic, Boston, 1999. 

Jaroszewski JW, Hyphenated NMR methods in natural products research. Part 1 Direct hyphenation, PlantaMed7 63 —700, 2005. 

Southwest Center for Natural Products Research and Commercialization... 

Petersen F. (2005) Natural products research at Novartis Pharmaceuticals — A historical overview. In Drug Discovery from Natural Products — 85 Years of Natural Products Research at Novartis, pp. 1-13. NIBR Global Communications, Cambridge, USA. 

An example of the complex set of spectroscopic information required in natural products research is afforded by the mixture of hydroperoxides 207, 208, the endoperoxide 209 and other minor products, obtained by photosensitized addition of O2 to phytol (206), according to Scheme 10. The scheme is complicated by the fact that 208 is a mixture of the E and Z isomers. After separation by HPLC, each fraction can undergo characterization by FTIR, H and NMR, also applying the HSQC, HMBC, H- H COSY and NOESY techniques, and EI-MS . ... 

Atta-Ur-Rahman et al.. Two new isoflavanoids from the rhizomes of Iris soforana. Natural Product Research, 18, 465, 2004. 

Krishnaveni, K.S. and Rao, J.V.S., A new isoflavone glucoside from Pterocarpus santalinus. Journal of Asian Natural Products Research, 2, 219, 2000. 

Wang, D.-Y. et al.. Four new isoflavones from Ampelopsis grossedentata, Journal of Asian Natural Products Research, 4, 303, 2002. 

Saleem M, Akhtar N, Riaz N, Ali MS, Jabbar A. Isolation and Characterization of Secondary Metabolites from Plumeria obtusa. Journal of Asian Natural Products Research 2011 13(12) 1122-1127. 

John K. Buolamwini National Center for the Development of Natural Products, Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, University, Mississippi... 

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