Photochemical routes to artemisinin

Abstract

Since its discovery in 1971, artemisinin has been and continues to be at the forefront of the fight against malaria. The commercial importance of this compound has fuelled historical breakthrough innovations over the past decades. Among them, synthetic biology and photochemistry have been two transformative technologies. The focus of this book chapter is to highlight the tremendous developments which have been made in the field of photochemistry in the artemisinin context. This summarizes the early investigations on the biosynthesis and total synthesis of artemisinin involving photochemistry as a key step, which have led to the foundation of today’s large scale photochemical process developed and operated by Sanofi in 2013. However, market competition has led to further investments and developments, in particular using continuous flow photochemical reactors and more recently, in the development of new recyclable and bifunctional photocatalytic systems as well as new routes which have become increasingly cost-efficient and sustainable.