You now have a good excuse to reach for an extra piece of dark chocolate, as scientists say it could help you live longer.

Nightshade is a family of plants that includes tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes, and peppers. Tobacco is also in the nightshade family. Nightshades are unique because they contain small amounts of ...

It wouldn’t be Valentine’s Day without somebody writing an article about the chemistry of chocolate. That person might as well be me. So without further ado, let’s discuss theobromine, a molecule that ...

Natural products have played a central role in medicine for as long as humans have sought to cure and ameliorate disease 1,2. Many have been fine-tuned by evolution for purposes that bear a ...

Scorpion venom packs more than a painful sting. It’s also chock full of novel bioactive compounds—most of them polypeptides—that intrigue scientists. For the first time, researchers have identified an ...

Alkaloid-derived pharmaceuticals are commonly semisynthesized from plant-extracted starting materials, which often limits their availability and final price. Recent advances in synthetic biology have ...

What does cannabis, coca leaf, and all coffee have in common? They all contain alkaloids, a powerful group of medicinal compounds found in plants around the world. While little is presently known ...

Researchers have highlighted cases of tropane alkaloid contamination in Italy and called for increased monitoring and regulation. The study detailed recent cases of tropane alkaloid intoxication after ...