The molecule for this month comes from the article “Isolation of Shikimic Acid from Star Aniseed” by Richard Payne and Michael Edmonds. Shikimic acid plays a key role in the biosynthesis of many important natural products including aromatic amino acids, alkaloids, phenolics, and phenylpropanoids. It plays such an important role that one of the key biosynthetic pathways is referred to as the shikimate pathway.

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In addition to the static image, two fully manipulable versions (Jmol, MDLChime) of these molecules appear below. (The Jmol versions may take a few extr

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