Abstract
Plant alkaloids constitute a vast range of compounds with potent bioactivities and are a source of numerous drugs and drug precursors currently used as pharmaceutics. However, the low yield of natural alkaloids in plant tissues limits large-scale drug development. Among the many classes of alkaloids, isoquinoline alkaloids have been intensively studied at the molecular level and efforts to improve their quality and yield are being actively pursued. This chapter describes the major tools used to produce secondary metabolites: (1) synthetic chemistry, (2) metabolic engineering of plants, and (3) synthetic biological approaches. While each of these methods has its advantages and limitations, immense effort in various disciplines as well as combinatorial approaches in metabolic engineering will likely realize an efficient and robust system for the mass production of alkaloids in the foreseeable future.
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