In the studies of pain management, -opioid receptor has been an important protein target in the cent — Physical Chemistry — Kinetics Chemistry Question

In the studies of pain management, -opioid receptor has been an important protein target in the central nervous system which interacts with specific small molecules and may therefore alleviate pain in patients. In studying this target, one needs to have access to these compounds. Nature has been a major source of these small compounds which may be used in the research. In addition to the parent compounds in plants which are known to reduce pain, synthetic derivatives are also equally important for the study. In a recent pharmacological evaluation of the synthetic mitragynine and derivatives, the principle alkaloids found in the Southeast Asian plant Mitragyna speciosa (known as Kratom in Thailand), by Sames and co-workers (Kruegel A. C. Gassaway M. M., Kapoor A., Váradi A., Majumdar S., Filizola M., Javitch J. A. and Sames D., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138, 6754–6764), the materials for the evaluation were accessed via total synthesis. The brief synthesis is illustrated in the scheme below.

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