ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the isolation of diamondoids from natural sources, namely gas and oil reservoirs. It briefly presents a short history of their discovery from the 1930s to the present date and the techniques necessary for their isolation and purification that were developed following the isolation of higher diamondoids up to undecamantane in the 1990s. The chapter provides a brief overview of the processes that lead to the formation of diamondoids in natural gas and oil reservoirs. Both gas and oil are produced from organic matter. Almost all, that is, more than 99% of the organic matter which is produced on land or in the oceans is dissociated by direct oxidation or by microbiological processes. As organic material, both from plants and from organisms, becomes buried by the accumulation of sediments, water is gradually expelled during compaction. Complex organic compounds like proteins are broken down into amino acids, while carbohydrates transform into sugar compounds.
