New approach developed for quickly producing key drug components

A team from Cardiff University have identified a new way of efficiently producing sesquiterpenes, a useful ingredient in medical products.

This new means of releasing sesquiterpenes from enzyme biocatalysts used in the production process involves breaking the reaction down into thousands of individual small reactions, thereby making the procedure much less time-consuming and expensive.

Sesquiterpenes are found in spicy foods, insects, plant leaves and beer and have been shown to be effective in treating colds, cardiovascular diseases, cancer and malaria. Folk medicines also use sesquiterpenes as an active ingredient against diarrhoea, burns, influenza and neural degradation.

Because sesquiterpenes tend to bind to the enzyme that produces them, they can be difficult to produce in the lab. This new technique avoids this by squeezing the reaction along a winding plastic tube, thus separating the compound from the enzyme in thousands of tiny segments.

Rudolf Allemann, a distinguished research professor and head of Cardiff University's school of chemistry, said: "Our new synthetic methodology may lead to a more efficient and cost-effective production of drugs and other bioactive molecules with applications as medicines, fragrances, food supplements or agrochemicals for pest control."

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