For survival purposes, all living organisms rely on an ability to transform and interconvert a diverse set of organic and inorganic compounds in order to utilize them as a source of energy and as their structural building blocks. The presence of these crucial building molecules, the “primary metabolites” (amino acids, fatty acids, nucleosides, and sugars) can be considered synonymous with “life” since they are ubiquitous among all organisms. (more…)

Recently, natural products chemistry has undergone explosive growth due to advances in isolation techniques, synthetic and biosynthetic approaches as well as spectroscopic and chromatographic methods. (more…)

The classification of natural products may follow the four schemes below:

(1) Classification based on the molecular skeletal structure: Open-chain aliphatic, alicyclic and cycloaparaffinic, aromatic, benzenoid and heterocyclic.

(2) Classification based on physiological activity: The interest in natural products is frequently initiated by attempts to isolate and clarify a physiologically active principle of plant or animal origin. (more…)