Advanced technologies targeting isolation and characterization of natural products

Natural products (NPs), are small molecules produced naturally by any organism. As they may be isolated in small quantities, having interesting biological activities and lush chemical structures, NPs advance the development of new drugs for diseases and have a strong impact on human health. The isolation procedure was and remains the active beginning of drug discovery, laying a foundation for lasting growth and prosperity in a large proportion of drug development. From the 1990s onwards, while many drugs inspired by NPs have been developed, it is still a highly random outcome. In recent years, to address the challenges of aimless separation, making full use of increasingly available technologies to discover chemical space efficiently is a modern topic, which will help researchers be able to break loose from continuous dull work. Moving forward by riding the tide of development, a shift in natural products research is brewing. In this review, we present the existing tools and emerging strategies aiming at providing a comprehensive guide for NPs targeting discovery.