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Total synthesis
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==History== {{expert needed|chemistry|section|reason=The provided examples are poor, narrow in scope, and incomplete. This section would greatly benefit from a rewrite and expansion by experts in the field|date=June 2021}} [[File:VitaminB12 retrosynthesis.svg|thumb|right|300px|'''[[Vitamin B12 total synthesis|Vitamin B<sub>12</sub> total synthesis]]: [[Retrosynthetic analysis]]''' of the Woodward–Eschenmoser total synthesis that was reported in two variants by these groups in 1972. The work involved more than 100 PhD trainees and postdoctoral fellows from 19 different countries. The [[retrosynthesis]] presents the disassembly of the target vitamin in a manner that makes chemical sense for its eventual forward construction. The target, Vitamin B<sub>12</sub> ('''I'''), is envisioned being prepared by the simple addition of its tail, which had earlier been shown to be feasible. The needed precursor, [[cobyric acid]] ('''II'''), then becomes the target and constitutes the "[[corrin]] core" of the vitamin, and its preparation was envisaged to be possible via two pieces, a "western" part composed of the A and D rings ('''III''') and an "eastern" part composed of the B and C rings ('''IV'''). The restrosynthetic analysis then envisions the starting materials required to make these two complex parts, the yet complex molecules '''V'''–'''VIII'''.]] Friedrich [[Wöhler synthesis|Wöhler]] discovered that an organic substance, [[urea]], could be produced from inorganic starting materials in 1828. That was an important conceptual milestone in chemistry by being the first example of a synthesis of a substance that had been known only as a byproduct of living processes.<ref name=Nicolaou1 /> Wöhler obtained [[urea]] by treating [[silver cyanate]] with [[ammonium chloride]], a simple, one-step synthesis: : AgNCO + NH<sub>4</sub>Cl → (NH<sub>2</sub>)<sub>2</sub>CO + AgCl [[Camphor]] was a scarce and expensive natural product with a worldwide demand.{{when|date=March 2017}} Haller and Blanc synthesized it from camphor acid;<ref name=Nicolaou1 /> however, the precursor, camphoric acid, had an unknown structure. When Finnish chemist Gustav Komppa synthesized camphoric acid from [[diethyl oxalate]] and [[3,3-dimethylpentanoic acid]] in 1904, the structure of the precursors allowed contemporary chemists to infer the complicated ring structure of camphor. Shortly thereafter,{{when|date=March 2017}} [[William Perkin]] published another synthesis of camphor.{{relevance inline|date=March 2017}} The work on the total chemical synthesis of camphor allowed Komppa to begin industrial production of the compound, in [[Tainionkoski]], [[Finland]], in 1907. The American chemist [[Robert Burns Woodward]] was a pre-eminent figure in developing total syntheses of complex organic molecules, some of his targets being [[cholesterol total synthesis|cholesterol]], [[cortisone]], [[strychnine total synthesis|strychnine]], [[lysergic acid]], [[reserpine]], [[chlorophyll]], [[colchicine]], [[Vitamin B12 total synthesis|vitamin B<sub>12</sub>]], and [[prostaglandin|prostaglandin F-2a]].<ref name=Nicolaou1 /> [[Vincent du Vigneaud]] was awarded the 1955 [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] for the total synthesis of the natural polypeptide [[oxytocin]] and [[vasopressin]], which reported in 1954 with the citation "for his work on biochemically important sulphur compounds, especially for the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone."<ref>{{cite web|title = The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1955|website = Nobelprize.org|url = http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1955/index.html|access-date = 17 November 2016|publisher = [[Nobel Media AB]]}}</ref> Another gifted chemist is [[Elias James Corey]], who won the [[Nobel Prize in Chemistry]] in 1990 for lifetime achievement in total synthesis and for the development of [[retrosynthetic analysis]].
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