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Curcuma longa (turmeric) has an extensive history of ethnomedical use for common ailments, and “curcumin”-containing dietary supplements (CDS) are a highly visible portion of today’s self-medication market. Owing to raw material cost pressure, CDS products are affected by economically motivated, nefarious adulteration with synthetic curcumin (“syncumin”), possibly leading to unexpected toxicological issues due to “residual” impurities. Using a combination of targeted and untargeted (phyto)chemical analysis, this study investigated the botanical integrity of two commercial “turmeric” CDS with vitamin and other additives that were associated with reported clinical cases of hepatotoxicity.

This Perspective of the published essential medicinal chemistry of cannabidiol (CBD) provides evidence that the popularization of CBD-fortified or CBD-labeled health products and CBD-associated health claims lacks a rigorous scientific foundation. CBD’s reputation as a cure-all puts it in the same class as other “natural” panaceas, where valid ethnobotanicals are reduced to single, purportedly active ingredients. Such reductionist approaches oversimplify useful, chemically complex mixtures in an attempt to rationalize the commercial utility of natural compounds and exploit the “natural” label.

Chlorophylls are present in all extracts from the aerial parts of green plant materials. Chlorophylls may act as in vitro bioassay nuisance compounds, possibly preventing the reproducibility and accurate measurement of readouts due to their UV/vis absorbance, fluorescence properties, and tendency to precipitate in aqueous media. Despite the diversity of methods used traditionally to remove chlorophylls, details about their mode of operation, specificity, and reproducibility are scarce. Herein, we report a selective and efficient 45 min liquid–liquid/countercurrent chlorophyll cleanup method using Centrifugal Partition Chromatography (CPC) with a solvent system composed of hexanes–EtOAc–MeOH–water (5:5:5:5, v/v) in elution-extrusion mode.

The notion of data transparency is gaining a strong awareness among the scientific community. The availability of raw data is actually regarded as a fundamental way to advance science by promoting both integrity and reproducibility of research outcomes. Particularly, in the field of natural product and chemical research, NMR spectroscopy is a fundamental tool for structural elucidation and quantification (qNMR). As such, the accessibility of original NMR data, i.e., Free Induction Decays (FIDs), fosters transparency in chemical research and optimizes both peer review and reproducibility of reports by offering the fundamental tools to perform efficient structural verification.

The revision of the structure of the sesquiterpene aquatolide from a bicyclo[2.2.0]hexane to a bicyclo[2.1.1]hexane structure using compelling NMR data, X-ray crystallography, and the recent confirmation via full synthesis exemplify that the achievement of “structural correctness” depends on the completeness of the experimental evidence. Archived FIDs and newly acquired aquatolide spectra demonstrate that archiving and rigorous interpretation of 1D 1H NMR data may enhance the reproducibility of (bio)chemical research and curb the growing trend of structural misassignments.

High-throughput biology has contributed a wealth of data on chemicals, including natural products (NPs). Recently, attention was drawn to certain, predominantly synthetic, compounds that are responsible for disproportionate percentages of hits but are false actives. Spurious bioassay interference led to their designation as pan-assay interference compounds (PAINS). NPs lack comparable scrutiny, which this study aims to rectify. Systematic mining of 80+ years of the phytochemistry and biology literature, using the NAPRALERT database, revealed that only 39 compounds represent the NPs most reported by occurrence, activity, and distinct activity.

The acquisition of 1D 1H NMR (HNMR) spectra is one of earliest steps in characterizing natural products and other organic molecules. For publication, HNMR information usually is “converted” into a table format, and sometimes spectral plots are provided. However, this transformation is lossy and frequently insufficient for unambiguous dereplication. This ambiguity can even lead to structural revision, such as in the recent case of aquatolide (1), a sesquiterpene lactone from Asteriscus aquaticus.

C-glycosylated flavones, including orientin, isoorientin, vitexin, and isovitexin, are minor but biologically significant constituents of fruit extracts of the chaste-tree (Vitex agnus-castus L.), a botanical supplement used to treat PMS and postmenopausal symptoms. The partition coefficient, or K-value, is the ratio of the concentration of a compound in each phase of a biphasic solvent mixture and is a physicochemical property of a particular compound in a particular solvent system. This value can be used to predict retention volume (V ret) in a countercurrent separation procedure.