Natural product

Living things make many things.

They make wood and silk. They also make milk. These are all from nature.

Some things help life grow. These are very important. They help a body stay healthy.

These can be vitamins.

Other things are not needed to live. But they help a living thing win. They can act like weapons.

They keep enemies away.

Some things help plants find friends. Others can scare bugs. These help the plant stay safe.

Nature is full of these special things.

Living things make many different substances. Scientists call these natural products.

There are two main groups of these products. The first group is called primary metabolites. These are parts that every living thing needs to stay alive. They help a body grow and make power. Primary metabolites include things like sugars and fats. They also make up DNA. DNA is the code that carries information for life.

The second group is called secondary metabolites. These are not needed for a living thing to survive. However, they help an organism win in its home. Some work like weapons to fight off enemies. Others can attract friends, like bees to a flower.

Chemists study these parts to make new medicines. Many drugs come from these natural sources. For example, some medicines come from plants or fungi. Even though it is hard to find them, they are very useful. Between 1981 and 2019, many new drugs were made this way. Natural products are a big part of how we find new cures.

Natural products are substances made by living things.

This term covers many different things found in nature. It can include wood, silk, or even milk. Some people use the term for foods or cosmetics. In science, it usually means organic compounds. These are made through ways the body uses to live. Scientists study these to learn about life itself.

Living things make two main types of substances. The first type is called primary metabolites. These are essential for an organism to stay alive. They help with growth and making energy. They also build the parts of a cell. Examples include sugars, fats, and amino acids.

Primary metabolites also include vitamins like B1 and B12. These help the body perform important jobs. They are found in many different kinds of life.

The second type is called secondary metabolites. These are not needed for survival. However, they give an organism a special advantage. Some work like chemical weapons against enemies. Others can attract helpful insects to a plant.

They are often very complex in their shape. This complexity makes them very interesting to chemists. They are often unique to only one species. Some can even be used to make medicines.

In 1891, Albrecht Kossel proposed these two classes. He divided them into primary and secondary groups. This helped scientists organize what they found. Since then, many new things have been discovered. There are between 300,000 and 400,000 known molecules. Many of these come from plants or fungi.

Scientists use these to find new ways to treat sickness.

Natural products are linked to the medicines you might take. Many drugs come from these natural sources. For example, morphine comes from a poppy plant. Between 1981 and 2019, they were very important. They made up 27% of new drug approvals. Even in 2017 to 2019, they were about 10%. Finding them can be a hard job today. This is because some plants are going extinct.

{ "text": "A natural product is any compound or substance produced by a living organism.

In the broadest sense, this includes everything from wood and silk to milk and soil. However, in the field of organic chemistry, scientists use a more specific definition. They focus on organic compounds isolated from nature that are created through metabolic pathways. These pathways are the chemical processes that happen inside a cell. Natural products are incredibly important to science. They provide challenging targets for chemists to recreate through total synthesis. They also serve as the foundation for discovering new medicines.

\n\nIn 1891, a scientist named Albrecht Kossel proposed a way to organize these substances. He divided them into two major classes: primary metabolites and secondary metabolites. Primary metabolites are the essential building blocks of life. They are required for an organism to grow, develop, and produce energy. These substances are found across many different kingdoms of life. In contrast, secondary metabolites are not strictly required for survival. Instead, they provide an evolutionary advantage by helping an organism compete in its environment.

\n\nPrimary metabolites manage the most fundamental cellular functions. They include carbohydrates for energy, lipids for membranes, and amino acids for building proteins. They also include nucleic acids, which are the DNA and RNA molecules that store genetic information. Many primary metabolites act as enzymatic cofactors, which help enzymes perform chemical reactions. For example, the vitamin B family includes several such cofactors. Vitamin B1 helps with carbohydrate metabolism, while Vitamin B12 is used in fatty acid catabolism.

These molecules are the universal machinery that keeps life running.\n\nSecondary metabolites, or specialized metabolites, are much more diverse and complex. Because they are not needed for basic survival, they can take on many specialized roles. Some act as pheromones for social signaling within a species. Others act as communication molecules to attract symbiotic organisms. Many secondary metabolites serve as \"chemical warfare\" agents. They can be toxins or venoms used against predators and prey. For example, the alkaloid morphine acts as a defense against herbivores. Terpenes like menthol can repel insects, while flavonoids attract pollinators. \n\nChemists study the complex ways these molecules are built, known as biosynthesis. One major pathway is the acetate pathway, which produces fatty acids and polyketides. This process begins when sugars are broken down into acetyl-CoA during glycolysis. In fatty acid synthesis, a \"starter unit\" of acetyl-CoA is condensed with several \"extender units" called malonyl-CoA. This creates the long chains used in cell membranes. If the chemical intermediates are left unreduced, they can become polyketides. These are used to create important substances like macrolide antibiotics.

\n\nAnother vital route is the shikimate pathway. This pathway is used by plants, fungi, and bacteria to create aromatic amino acids and phenylpropanoids. These molecules are essential for various biological functions. The sheer variety of these pathways explains why there are between 300,000 and 400,000 known natural product molecules. The structural complexity of these molecules is what makes them so valuable to researchers. They offer a blueprint for creating entirely new types of chemicals.\n\nNatural products have a massive impact on modern medicine. They have inspired many of the drugs used by doctors today. Between January 1, 1981, and September 30, 2019, natural products accounted for 27% of all new drug approvals. Even more recently, they represented about 10% of new drug approvals between 2017 and 2019.

However, pharmaceutical companies have paid less attention to them in the 21st century. This is due to several difficult challenges. Access to these sources can be unreliable, and the cost of research is high. Additionally, rising extinction rates mean we are losing many natural sources before they can be studied.", "media": [ "File:Building blocks of life.png", "File:Natural product drugs.svg", "File:Secondary metabolite class examples.svg", "File:Vitamin structures.svg", "File:Papaver someriferum 01.jpg", "File:Fatty acid biosynthesis.svg", "File:Penicillium rubens (type specimen).png" ] }