Where has all the sparteine gone?

Abstract

For decades, (–)-sparteine was a workhorse chemical reagent. The chiral diamine natural product extracted from the seeds of several types of plants had been widely used as a ligand in asymmetric syntheses and as a cocatalyst in ring-opening polymerization reactions. Chemists also studied (–)-sparteine’s potential as a drug. But in 2010, the compound went missing. At first, chemists had trouble buying (–)-sparteine—the supply chain that academic research labs and chemical companies relied on was drying up. Then, the compound was nowhere to be found. After a drought of several years, the reagent is now available again. However, (–)-sparteine remains sparse. And it’s much more costly than it once was. The bottom line is no one, not even chemical companies that advertise selling it, seems to have an answer as to what happened. The case of the missing (–)-sparteine might not have the same cachet as a murder in an Agatha