Abstract
We present a comprehensive review of the advent and impact of continuous flow chemistry with regard to the synthesis of natural products and drugs, important pharmaceutical products and definitely responsible for a revolution in modern healthcare. We detail the beginnings of modern drugs and the large scale batch mode of production, both chemical and microbiological. The introduction of modern continuous flow chemistry is then presented, both as a technological tool for enabling organic chemistry, and as a fundamental research endeavor. This part details the syntheses of bioactive natural products and commercial drugs.
Highlights
The apothecary prepared his medications from natural sources, usually as a concoction of a complex mixture of compounds
Chemical syntheses assisted by enabling technologies have been widely used in the last six decades by the petrochemical and chemical industries, and it is well accepted that continuous flow chemistry has been the key technology in Scheme 41 - Continuous flow synthesis of highly substituted pyrazoles and pyrazolines
Only in the last 20 years has this technology attracted the attention of big pharma and academia as a real and useful tool to expand accessible chemical space and support scale-up, safety, profitability and sustainability of chemical and Active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) synthesis
Summary
The apothecary prepared his medications from natural sources, usually as a concoction of a complex mixture of compounds. The efficiency of these reactions has been significantly improved under continuous flow conditions compared to batch due to homogeneous light irradiation allowed by the use of polymer tube reactors (PFA, FEP). Considering all these advantages provided for continuous flow conditions, modern photochemical protocols have been improved for safety, reproducibility, minor dilutions, better selectivity, scalability and shorter reaction times, opening up new opportunities for research in both industry and academia (Matthew et al 2010, Noel et al 2017).
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