Even though strychnine can easily be isolated from the Nux Vomicus tree, chemist

Question

Even though strychnine can easily be isolated from the Nux Vomicus tree, chemists have been working on the problem of synthesizng strychnine in the laboratory since the 1950s. As of 2012, the molecule had been synthesized using 17 different strategies.

Please comment on the motivation for all of this research- why did chemists originally want to synthesize strychnine?

Why did chemists continue to pursue strychnine synthesis research years after it had been done the first time?

Should chemists still be working on the problem today (why or why not?)

Explanation / Answer

Chemists synthesise natural products because of their useful properties. It is generally cheaper to synthesise them than to extract them from the organisms. Synthesis moreover cultivates an understanding of the basic principles of chemistry. The main aim of the chemists to synthesise strychnine was to identify its molecular structure.

Since strychnine posed significant challenges for total synthesis, the chemists continued to pursue strychine synthesis research. Total synthesis provides oppurtunities to test the applicability and scope of new developed method, to discover and develop new synthetic reactions. Thus continued development of new strategies and chemical reactions in 1980's and 1990's led to several new synthesis of strychine by other chemists, using less than half number of steps than used in original synthesis.

Since total synthesis provides scope to discover and develop new synthetic reactions, there is need to work on the problem today also. Further Natural product total synthesis endeavors often provide intermediates and chemistry that allows the natural products structure to be modified. Such changes improves our knowledge of biological and physical properties and allow the natural products molecular target to be identified

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