compoundsnatural

Natural compounds, or natural products, are organic compounds produced by living organisms. They occur widely in plants, microorganisms, fungi, marine life, and animals, and are studied for ecological roles as well as medicinal, industrial, and agricultural uses. Natural compounds are typically categorized into primary metabolites, which are essential for growth and reproduction (for example amino acids, nucleotides, and simple sugars), and secondary metabolites, which are not essential for basic life processes but provide ecological advantages such as defense or signaling (for example alkaloids, terpenoids, polyketides, phenolics, and glycosides).

Most natural compounds are obtained from natural sources or produced in engineered organisms due to their structural complexity. They are isolated through solvent extraction and purification processes, and their structures are determined by spectroscopic methods such as nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry, sometimes aided by X-ray crystallography.

Biosynthesis in living systems involves diverse enzymatic pathways. Terpenoids are produced via mevalonate or non-mevalonate pathways; alkaloids derive from amino acid precursors; polyketides and nonribosomal peptides are formed by modular synthases. In addition to isolation, modern approaches include genome mining and metagenomics to discover new compounds, as well as synthetic biology and biocatalysis to optimize production.

Natural compounds have important applications in medicine, nutrition, flavors, and fragrances. They also pose challenges related to sustainable supply, dereplication of known structures, and the complexity of total synthesis.