Pharmaceutically relevant (hetero)cyclic compounds and natural products from lignin-derived monomers: Present and perspectives

Anastasiia Afanasenko; Katalin Barta

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2021.102211

Pharmaceutically relevant (hetero)cyclic compounds and natural products from lignin-derived monomers: Present and perspectives

iScience. 2021 Feb 20;24(3):102211. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.102211. eCollection 2021 Mar 19.

Authors

Anastasiia Afanasenko¹, Katalin Barta^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Stratingh Institute for Chemistry, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, the Netherlands.
² Institute of Chemistry, University of Graz, Heinrichstrasse 28, 8010 Graz, Austria.

Abstract

Lignin, the richest source of renewable aromatics on the planet, is an intriguing raw material for the construction of value-added aromatics. In the past decade, much progress has been made regarding the development of efficient lignin depolymerization methods, able to produce specific monophenol derivatives in high-enough selectivity and yields. This now serves as an excellent basis for developing powerful downstream conversion strategies toward a wide range of products, including fine chemical building blocks. The inherent structural features of lignin-derived platform chemicals undoubtedly inspire the development of novel, creative, atom-economic synthetic routes toward biologically active molecules or natural products. In this perspective we attempt to bridge the structural features of lignin-derived platform chemicals with existing synthetic strategies toward the construction of heterocycles and provide a summary of efforts for the production of natural products from aromatics that can be, in principle, obtained from lignin. Last, we comment on the latest efforts that present entire value-chains from wood to valuable pharmaceutically relevant compounds.

Keywords: Chemistry; Green Chemistry; Organic Chemistry; Process Biotechnology.

Publication types

Review