naturstoffforskning

Natural product research (naturstoffforskning) studies secondary metabolites produced by living organisms, including plants, microbes, fungi, and marine life. The field aims to discover, isolate, identify, and understand bioactive compounds, as well as to study their biosynthesis, ecological roles, and potential applications in medicine, agriculture, and industry. It is inherently interdisciplinary, combining chemistry, biology, pharmacology, and informatics.

Historically, natural products have formed the basis of many medicines; traditional knowledge informs discovery campaigns. Core workflows include extraction from source material, fractionation by chromatography, and structure elucidation using NMR, mass spectrometry, and X-ray methods. Dereplication tools help distinguish new compounds from known ones. Researchers often study biosynthetic pathways to understand how organisms produce these compounds, enabling engineering.

In the modern era, advances in genomics and metabolomics enable genome mining to identify biosynthetic gene clusters, including in uncultivable organisms. Synthetic biology and heterologous expression allow production of scarce compounds in accessible hosts. Computational tools, high-throughput screening, and combinatorial biosynthesis accelerate discovery. Marine, microbial, and endophytic sources broaden diversity.

Applications include new antimicrobial, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and CNS-active agents, as well as agrochemicals and cosmetic ingredients. Challenges include limited natural abundance, complex structures, reproducibility, supply chain issues, and regulatory hurdles. Ethical considerations include biodiversity protection and benefit-sharing under frameworks like the Nagoya Protocol.

Education and research trends emphasize interdisciplinary training, data sharing, and collaboration across academia, industry, and public institutions. The field remains dynamic, balancing traditional natural product chemistry with modern omics-driven approaches.