SyMiC, a Methodology for the Pinpointing and Utilization of Natural Products: A Review and Future Prospects

Through millennia of evolution, the wisdom of nature has optimized certain compounds and conducted combinatorial chemistry for the sustenance of life. Today, natural products, and chiefly those of plant secondary metabolism offer huge potentiality for man in his effort to exploit and to synthesize them for multiple vital needs that will enhance his well-being. These days, the field appears as vigorous as ever, and its future looks as promising as its past has been rewarding. In an endeavor to contribute to the sustainable utilization of plant metabolites, we have created a novel methodology, SyMiC (Systematic-Microscopy-Chemistry). The methodology pinpoints and exploits those plants-some of which reveal their real uses only via SyMiC-that produce metabolites of great biotechnological and economic interest, while also ensuring that the natural products yields of the selected plants are high.