Chemistry Clarity · chemistryclarity.com
Stories from nature
Many of our most important medicines began as molecules made by plants, fungi and microbes. These are the stories of how chemists found them, worked out their structures and turned them into drugs.
Arranged as a timeline, from the oldest discovery to the most recent.
The first alkaloid ever isolated from a plant, still one of the most important painkillers in medicine.
From opium in ancient Mesopotamia to Sertürner's isolation of morphine in 1804, its complex structure (1925) and synthesis (1952), how it relieves pain, and why it is addictive.
The bark that treated malaria for 300 years, and the failed synthesis that started the chemical industry.
Cinchona bark from the Andes, the isolation of quinine in 1820, Perkin's accidental discovery of the first synthetic dye in 1856, the long road to its synthesis, and why tonic water glows.
How a folk remedy for fever became one of the most widely used medicines in the world.
The 3500-year journey of aspirin: willow bark, salicin and salicylic acid, Bayer's acetylated version of 1897, and how its mechanism was finally explained in 1971.
The first natural antibiotic, from a contaminated dish in 1928 to the medicine that changed the course of the Second World War.
How Fleming noticed penicillin in 1928, how Florey, Chain and Heatley turned it into a drug, why its β-lactam ring kills bacteria, and how resistance arose.
How a non-intoxicating compound from cannabis became an approved epilepsy drug, Epidiolex.
Cannabidiol (CBD) from Cannabis sativa: its isolation (1940) and structure (1963), how it differs from THC, and the 2018 approval of Epidiolex for rare, severe childhood epilepsies.
A wound-healing compound from a traditional herb of Asia and Madagascar, now found in skin creams.
Centella asiatica (gotu kola) in traditional medicine, the isolation of its saponins in 1941, the structure of madecassoside, and its use in wound healing and soothing skin products.
A cancer drug from the bark of the Pacific yew, and the chemistry that saved the trees.
How the US National Cancer Institute found paclitaxel (Taxol) in Pacific yew bark, why its structure was so hard to solve and synthesize, how it stops cancer cells dividing, and how it is made sustainably.
How a 1600-year-old prescription led to a Nobel Prize and saved millions of lives.
How Tu Youyou's team found artemisinin in sweet wormwood using a clue from a fourth-century Chinese text, why its peroxide bridge kills malaria parasites, and how it is made today.
A sugar-like molecule from carob pods that is being studied for its effects on blood sugar.
D-Pinitol from carob pods: what inositols are, why pinitol is so soluble in water, and what research suggests about its effects on insulin resistance (a supplement, not an approved drug).
How a molecule from a kitchen spice became the starting material for an influenza drug.
How oseltamivir (Tamiflu) was designed in 1996 to block influenza neuraminidase, why its synthesis starts from shikimic acid in Chinese star anise, and the 2005 shortage.