The leaves of the tree Mitragyna speciosa (also known as kratom) contain a complex mixture of monoterpene indole alkaloids, including one called mitragynine. Mitragynine has pain-relieving effects similar to those of opioid drugs, which has led to the use of kratom as a natural remedy for pain and the management of opioid dependence. However, the biosynthesis of mitragynine is not fully understood, which has prevented reproduction of crucial biocatalytic steps and limited the development of mitragynine analogs. Now, Schotte et al. have used a multi-omics approach to uncover the key biosynthetic steps that form the corynanthe-type scaffold of kratom alkaloids, including the mechanism for the formation of the key stereogenic center.

树Mitragyna speciosa（也称为 kratom）的叶子含有单萜吲哚生物碱的复杂混合物，其中包括一种称为帽柱木碱的化合物。帽柱木碱具有类似于阿片类药物的镇痛作用，这导致使用 kratom 作为疼痛的自然疗法和阿片类药物依赖的管理。然而，帽柱木碱的生物合成尚未完全了解，这阻碍了关键生物催化步骤的再现，并限制了帽柱木碱类似物的开发。现在，Schotte 等人。已经使用多组学方法揭示了形成 kratom 生物碱的 corynanthe 型支架的关键生物合成步骤，包括关键立体异构中心的形成机制。