Harnessing the moonseed plant's chemical know-how

In overgrown areas from Canada to China, a lush, woody vine with crescent-shaped seeds holds the secret to making a cancer-fighting chemical. Now, Whitehead Institute researchers in Member Jing-Ke Weng's lab have discovered ...

When sulfur disappears without trace

Many natural products and drugs feature a so-called dicarbonyl motif— in certain cases, however, their preparation poses a challenge to organic chemists. In their most recent work, Nuno Maulide and his coworkers from the ...

Targeted synthesis of natural products with light

Photoreactions are driven by light energy and are vital to the synthesis of many natural substances. Since many of these substances are also useful as active medical agents, chemists try to produce them synthetically. But ...

Treated fibers clean dye-polluted waters

(Phys.org) —A cheap and simple process using natural fibers embedded with nanoparticles can almost completely rid water of harmful textile dyes in minutes, report Cornell and Colombian researchers who worked with native ...

Supercomputers used to supercharge antioxidants

The future of keeping ageing-related diseases at bay lies with the supercomputer according to scientists from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology at the University of Sydney.

New chemistry technique reproduces nature's elusive complexity

(Phys.org)—Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have shown how to synthesize in the laboratory an important set of natural compounds known as terpenes. The largest class of chemicals made by living organisms, terpenes ...

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