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Albany, NY – In today's Academic Minute, Dr. Kenneth Miller of Fort Lewis College explains the natural origin of some widely used medicines.
Kenneth Miller is an assistant professor of chemistry at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado. His research is primarily focused on finding green methods of chemical production that require less energy input and produce less waste. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.
Dr. Kenneth Miller - Nature and Pharmacology
Everyone has most likely heard of aspirin, penicillin, and quinine. What you might not know is that these common drugs and many others, called natural products, are produced in nature by plants, animals, fungi or bacteria. Aspirin is found in the bark of the Willow tree and has been used to reduce fever and inflammation for centuries. Penicillin is produced by a blue mold often found growing on bread. Quinine is a cure for malaria found in the bark on the Cinchona tree. According to legend, the bitter taste of the anti-malarial quinine tonic water led British colonials in India to mix it with gin, thus creating the gin and tonic. In fact, natural products and derivatives of natural products comprise more than two-thirds of the drugs approved by the FDA in the last 15 years, and for this reason natural product chemistry still remains the major driving force in the pursuit of new life saving drugs.
Preparation of natural products in the organic chemistry lab has been the cornerstone of organic chemistry research for at least the last 100 years. Natural products are frequently structurally complex, and as a result, the total synthesis of these challenging molecules in the laboratory is an endeavor that tests the boundaries of what is known about the reactivity of organic molecules. The synthesis of complex natural products in a systematic fashion began in the early 1900's, and these synthetic accomplishments have often resulted in the development of new chemical reactions and new ways of thinking about fundamental concepts such as reactivity and bonding. Modern natural products research in my lab and elsewhere is directed at preparing useful quantities of promising natural product drugs that are naturally found in extremely small quantities and systematically altering their structure in the lab to optimize potency while reducing side effects.
So next time you have a few too many gin and tonics and end up taking a couple of aspirin, thank a natural products chemist!