Chemists synthesize herbal alkaloid

A team of US researchers has created an efficient way to chemically synthesize a complex natural molecule, serratezomine A. The herbal  alkaloid could have anticancer properties and may combat memory loss.

It is produced naturally by the club moss Lycopodium serratum, but in  such small quantities that testing it proved difficult, it was noted.

The scientists from the Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, USA, say  that their new synthesis methods should make it easier to chemically  produce other Lycopodium alkaloids as well as other natural compounds  with therapeutic potential.