Fine chemicals and drugs from plants.

Compounds isolated from plants can often be isolated in notable amounts and may then be interesting as synthons for pharmacologically interesting compounds. Antirrhinoside and catalpol are such compounds; they are the main constituents in snapdragon (Antirrhinum major) and scullcap (Scutellaria albida), respectively. These plants can be grown as alternative crops on fields laid bracken. The advantage when using such compounds as starting materials in synthesis is the inherent stereochemical integrity which controls the stereochemistry in the further synthetic steps leading to biologically active compounds such as analogues of prostaglandines, jasmonic acid as well as carbocyclic nucleosides.