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Semisynthesis, or partial chemical synthesis, is a type of chemical synthesis that uses chemical compounds isolated from natural sources (such as microbial cell cultures or plant material) as the starting materials to produce novel compounds with distinct chemical and medicinal properties. The novel compounds generally have a high molecular weight or a complex molecular structure, more so than those produced by total synthesis from simple starting materials. Semisynthesis is a means of preparing many medicines more cheaply than by total synthesis since fewer chemical steps are necessary.
Drugs derived from natural sources are commonly produced either by isolation from their natural source or, as described here, through semisynthesis of an isolated agent. From the perspective of chemical synthesis, living organisms act as highly efficient chemical factories, capable of producing structurally complex compounds through biosynthesis. In contrast, engineered chemical synthesis, although powerful, tends to be simpler and less chemically diverse than the complex biosynthetic pathways essential to life.