Chapter 2: Isolation and Synthesis of Natural Products: Empiricism and Reductionism

This chapter begins with a discussion of scale (from the quantum level to whole organisms) and the importance of equilibrium in chemistry. This prefaces a discussion of one of the key principles of chemistry which renders it comprehendible – reductionism. Two of the key aspects of natural product chemistry have been the importance of isolation and synthesis. Both provide valuable insights and the balance between them is often a matter of the available technology and expertise. The principles of isolation and synthesis are examined using the natural products, glucosinolates, as an example. This leads to an examination of one of the principles of isolative chemistry – structure–activity guided purification of natural products. An extension of this type of thinking is given by a brief consideration of combinatorial chemistry. The chapter concludes with an examination of the importance of empiricism and extrapolation in chemistry and how the complexity of living systems can be a challenge for natural product chemistry.