Natural products have historically contributed to drug discovery as a source of bioactive molecules, due to their great diversity and structural complexity. They have provided “lead” molecules for the development of drugs in different therapeutic areas, with a very prominent representation in the treatment of pain and inflammation, coagulation disorders, metabolic disorders, as well as in the treatment of cancer and infectious diseases. In recent decades there has been a paradigm shift in drug discovery strategies that has allowed the identification of new active natural products in therapeutic targets. Combinatorial Chemistry and biological tests (High Throughput Screening), together with the development of computational techniques, have contributed decisively to the design and optimization of libraries of natural product derivatives based on their biological activity. In parallel, technological advances in the field of Omics sciences and in data processing lead to a multidimensional approach in the drug discovery process. These powerful tools will allow the analysis of the pharmacological potential of natural products and their derivatives for the conversion of these molecules to active products with low toxicity. In the Precision Medicine era, natural products continue to be molecules with great potential in pharmaceutical development, since, unlike other therapeutic strategies, they have a favorable cost-benefit ratio, which will allow their future use in this discipline.
Non-Enzymatic Desymmetrization Reactions in Aqueous Media