Hyderabad: The Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) is focusing on natural products of Indian origin as it works on developing new molecules that can be used by the pharma industry to develop medicines.
Of specific interest are three molecules which are in the process of being licenced to pharmaceutical industry users.
IICT director S. Chandrasekhar said, “We are using existing abundantly available natural products of Indian origin to discover new chemical entities. The first one we are working on is neem. Nimbolide is said to be very useful in dealing with pancreatic cancer. We are trying to understand the mechanistic pathways as it has some side-effects. Our team is working to optimise the path on which it works in pancreatic cancer.”
The second one is a class of compounds in natural products called flavonoids, which are found in all fruits and vegetables. The IICT has replaced the oxygen in flavonoids with nitrogen which changes its properties. “This product will be helpful in treating central nervous system disorders and oncology,” Dr Chandrasekhar said.
Third one is from traditional medicine, which leaves a bitter taste. IICT has used a glyceric acid taste enhancer. “We have done a technique in organic chemistry call late stage functionalisation through which we could change the properties,” he said.
