Technological products semisynthesis

There is a tendency to reserve semisynthetic and totally synthetic methods for the introduction of bonds and residues that cannot be specified by the genetic code. The present chapter will concentrate on these aspects. However, semisynthesis can have a role to play even when building structures that are completely accessible to the genetic code. The first industrial challenge for the emerging technologies of total chemical synthesis, recombinant protein expression, and semisynthesis was the economic production of human insulin in pharmaceutically usable quantity and quality. The semisynthetic human insulin that was made from porcine insulin proved exceptionally convenient to produce, and was the first introduction to human insulin for very many patients. 

Table 15.IL Semisynthesis of drugs or technologically relevant agents from natural products...

The properties of phenolic lipids have tended to be dominated by technological aspects and it is only comparatively recently that potential biological usefulness has come to the fore. For example, products derived from the Anacardiacae occidentale, notably cardanol obtained by semisynthesis through thermal decarboxylation were all directed to polymeric and technical applications and the vast industrial literature [246] contains only two references to insecticidal uses of chlorinated cardanol [247]. 

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