ABSTRACT
The isolation of natural products from marine sources accelerated rapidly beginning in the early 1970 and is only now hinting that a plateau may have been reached, as measured by the number of yearly publications. Terpenes comprise primary and secondary metabolites, all derived from the five-carbon isoprene entity. Combination and modifications of these isoprene units lead to a multitude of diverse structures with different chemical and biological properties. Several biologically active terpenoids turned out to possess biomedical potential and are thus already in preclinical or clinical development. The terpene nucleus of eleutherobin is bound to a sugar moiety and linked via an ester bond to a partial structure most probably derived from histidine. Baeyer—Villiger oxidation of linear and cyclic ketones to corresponding esters and lactones is an important reaction in the synthesis of biologically relevant compounds.
