Plants make substances called alkaloids to protect themselves, and humans have long taken advantage of these chemicals, using them in painkillers, treatments for disease and household products such as ...

Alkaloids constitute one of the major classes of bioactive natural products identified in plant species used in traditional medical systems. Among them, ...

A step forward in our understanding of how plants produce alkaloids could herald new pharmaceuticals. Biologists from the University of York (UK) have discovered enzymes that catalyze the biosynthesis ...

Cinchona alkaloids have a long and storied history in chemistry. Derived from Cinchona plants, members of the molecular family include the chiral catalyst cinchonidine and quinine, an early ...

Plants make chemical weapons to protect themselves, and many of these compounds have become vital to human medicine. Researchers found that one powerful plant chemical is produced using a gene that ...

Plants make substances called alkaloids to protect themselves, and humans have long taken advantage of these chemicals, using them in painkillers, treatments for disease and household products such as ...

Alkaloid-derived pharmaceuticals are commonly semisynthesized from plant-extracted starting materials, which often limits their availability and final price. Recent advances in synthetic biology have ...