Why is total synthesis of coral natural products often prohibitively expensive?
Answer
They possess highly complex, three-dimensional molecular architectures
While scientists strive to synthesize promising compounds in a lab setting using readily available starting materials to avoid ecological damage, this process faces significant hurdles when dealing with marine natural products, especially those from corals. The molecular architectures are frequently characterized by extreme complexity and intricate three-dimensional arrangements. Replicating these complex structures precisely through total synthesis proves exceptionally difficult, lengthy, and often results in prohibitive costs when scaling production beyond the laboratory bench.
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