Owing to the natural abundance, variety of structural features, and highly specific functions, natural monomers render themselves as potential candidates for production of high performance functional polymers. The emerging concept of the biorefinery and development of new biosynthetic routes to synthesize a versatile and broad spectrum of natural monomers and polymers continues to gain momentum. The production of high quality polymers from renewable feedstocks requires innovative chemical modifications and catalytic transformations to achieve higher yields in an efficient manner. A fresh look into monomers available from natural resources such as terpenes, rosin, glycerol, furans, tannins, suberin, their derivatives and miscellaneous monomers may inspire future applications with impactful biobased materials. There are also many areas that require urgent discussion and review pertaining to recent developments in the field; this includes monomer sources that give molecules having special structural features. In particular, cardanol, a naturally occurring low-molecular-weight compound is unique as it contains a phenolic head group and a hydrocarbon chain with different degrees of unsaturation. This molecule possesses functional groups that are amenable for classical chemical modification, which is instrumental in developing a wide range of functional monomers and polymers. A large number of soft and hard materials have been developed from cardanol-based monomers. During the past, a large number of industrial grade materials have been developed from plant-based monomers, including development from microbial and fermentation processes (i.e. lactic acid). This review provides a comprehensive study and survey on recent developments on monomers and polymers derived from urushiol and cardanol based monomers and polymers, vegetable oil-based monomers and polymers, microbially produced monomers and polymers. These all represent emerging fronts giving a vast scope while highlighting important potential material and reagent opportunities.

由于天然丰度，各种结构特征和高度特定的功能，天然单体使其成为生产高性能功能聚合物的潜在候选者。生物精炼的新兴概念和开发新的生物合成路线以合成多种多样的天然单体和聚合物的趋势不断发展。由可再生原料生产高质量聚合物需要创新的化学修饰和催化转化，以有效地实现更高的产量。对可从自然资源（例如萜烯，松香，甘油，呋喃，单宁，suberin，它们的衍生物和其他单体）获得的单体进行重新研究，可能会激发有影响的生物基材料在未来的应用。还有许多领域需要就该领域的最新发展进行紧急讨论和审查；这包括产生具有特殊结构特征的分子的单体来源。尤其是腰果酚，一种天然存在的低分子量化合物，是独特的，因为它包含一个酚醛头基和一个具有不同不饱和度的烃链。该分子具有适用于经典化学修饰的官能团，有助于开发各种功能性单体和聚合物。已经从腰果酚类单体开发出许多软硬材料。过去，许多工业级材料都是从植物类单体中开发出来的，包括从微生物和发酵过程中开发出来的材料（即乳酸）。这篇综述对衍生自漆酚和腰果酚基单体和聚合物，植物油基单体和聚合物，微生物生产的单体和聚合物的单体和聚合物的最新发展进行了全面的研究和调查。这些都代表了新兴领域，提供了广阔的领域，同时突出了重要的潜在材料和试剂机会。