Shanghai University of Technology
The structural modification and total synthesis of natural products represent a key area of research in pharmaceutical development, and the purity of solvents directly determines the success or failure of multi-step reactions. The State Key Laboratory of Organic Molecular Chemistry has long faced challenges posed by solvent impurities in its research on the structural modification and total synthesis of natural products: given the complex structures of natural products and the sensitivity of multi-step reactions, even trace impurities in solvents can cause a single reaction step to fail. This not only wastes substantial amounts of raw materials and time but also delays the research process. Many bioactive natural product derivatives are difficult to synthesise due to solvent-related issues, creating a bottleneck that hinders research breakthroughs.
To overcome this challenge, the laboratory has introduced a solvent purification system from Beijing Yifeng Technology Co., Ltd. This system is capable of supplying a variety of high-purity solvents in real time. It can precisely regulate solvent purity according to the requirements of natural product structural modification and total synthesis, thoroughly removing interfering substances such as water and impurities from the solvents to ensure that every reaction step takes place in a pure solvent environment. The system employs automated control, allowing flexible adjustment of flow rates and purity parameters to accommodate multi-step sequential reactions, thereby significantly enhancing synthetic efficiency.
The commissioning of Yifeng’s solvent purification system has injected new momentum into the institute’s research on natural products. The purified solvents have substantially reduced side reactions at each stage, significantly improved overall reaction yields, and cut the synthesis cycle by nearly half compared to previous methods, successfully resolving synthesis challenges previously caused by solvent impurities. Researchers are now able to focus on the structural modification and bioactivity studies of natural products, successfully synthesising a variety of natural product derivatives with excellent bioactivity, thereby providing vital support for the development of natural medicines. Yifeng Technology empowers scientific research through technology, enabling the exploration of natural products to proceed more steadily and further, and helping the university achieve continuous breakthroughs in the field of functional organic molecular chemistry.
(The above content is for reference only and is not directly associated with the university or enterprise.)
