Studies towards the synthesis of bioactive natural products and development of new synthetic methods

It has been estimated that more than half of all approved drugs, from the period 1981 to 2014, are either natural products or their derivatives. This, thus, indicates that natural products (NP), together with natural product derived and natural product inspired structures are significant as sources for potential leads towards the discovery of new drugs. The introduction of this thesis thereby highlights the importance of natural products in the field of drug discovery. In addition, the introduction emphasizes on the importance of natural products as a field of research. This is as the synthesis of natural products can result in the development of new synthetic methods which can then be applied to a broader range of applications across the field of chemistry. This new information, thus, bridges a gap in the scientific knowledge and allows for progress in science. Therefore the content of this thesis describes the syntheses and development of new synthetic methods towards bioactive natural products containing 1,3-amino alcohol, 1,3-diamine, THP-ring as well as tri-aryl ethylene unit which represent the key themes of (+)-negamycin (Chapter 1), (-)-cernuine and (+)-cermizine D (Chapter 2), enigmazole A (Chapter 3) and tamoxifen (Chapter 4), respectively.​Doctor of Philosophy (SPMS