Isolation and Structure Elucidation of Natural Products Chemistry – Review of Modern Trends (Alkaloids and Terpenes)

Natural products are also known as secondary metabolites, compounds that are naturally produced by biological organisms. These natural products have a broad range of functions which include agents that solubilize and transport nutrients, like siderophores which transport iron Fe3+ across membranes in bacteria and fungi; they are often structurally complex molecules that possess a well-defined spatial orientation. These compounds have evolved to interact efficiently with their biological targets, as their producers evolved alongside their target organisms. This work aimed at reviewing modern trends in isolation and structural elucidation of Alkaloids and Terpenes. Alkaloids are the main secondary metabolites which have medical properties. It can be used to avoid the several degenerative sicknesses by scavenging free radical or binding with catalyst, the oxidative reaction. Terpenes or terpenoids are the major diverse group occurring in plants naturally, depending on isoprene unit’s number. Humans used several of terpenoid compounds to produce important compounds such as vitamin A from βcarotene. Generally, terpenes in foods contain a main effect on our eating practice. Terpenoid as pigments, like bixin, astaxanthin, and lycopene are utilized in the food manufacturing industry. The modern techniques as well as the advanced instruments that employed in the discovery programme of bioactive natural products facilitated the task of the natural product chemists and permitted them to detect, target, isolate and elucidate the structure of the pharmacologically active natural product in significantly short times compared with that done in the not too distant past. Conclusively, the review identified the various modern methods that are in use in the isolation, purification and structure elucidation of alkaloids and terpenoids. these include NMR,MS and hyphenated HPLC system.