ABSTRACT
The chemistry dealing with natural products is the oldest branch of organic chemistry. Natural products chemistry started with the curiosity regarding odor, taste, color, folk medicinal cures. Warburganal was isolated from the leaves and bark of Warburgia stuhlmannii and W. ugandensis, plants that are widely used as food spice and folk medicine in East Africa. Propolis, the brown gum made by honeybees on beehives has long been a popular folk medicine in Eastern Europe, the Near East and other countries, and is alleged to possess antibiotic, antiinflammatory and tumor-growth-arresting properties. The fact that natural medicines are attracting renewed attention is encouraging. Clarification of the constituents involved and understanding the mode of actions are clearly challenging but all the more worthwhile. The microorganism is spread on warm steamed rice to first produce the orange pigment; upon further fermentation, the pigment changes into the yellow monascoflavin, which gives rise to a higher quality wine.
