such as glucose or ribose, or alternatively substantially
modified and unusual sugars. To appreciate how a natural
product is elaborated, it is of value to be able to dissect
its structure into the basic building blocks from which it
is made up and to use fundamental chemical mechanisms
to propose how these are joined together. With a little
experience and practice, this becomes a relatively simple
process and it allows the molecule to be rationalized,
thus exposing logical relationships between apparently
quite different structures. In this way, similarities
become much more meaningful than differences, and an
understanding of biosynthetic pathways allows rational
connecting links to be established. This forms the basic
approach in this book