Paracetamol and ibuprofen painkillers produced using paper waste by-product

The researchers said that they also successfully synthesized a range of other precursor chemicals from turpentine, including 4-HAP (4-hydroxyacetophenone), which is the precursor of drugs including beta-blockers and the asthma inhaler drug, salbutamol, as well as others widely used for perfumes and in cleaning products.

The method allows scientists to undertake uninterrupted production and tackle scalability.

The research proposes a more sustainable and plant-derived way to forgo traditional production methods. 

Research associate in the University’s Department of Chemistry, Dr Josh Tibbetts said: “Using oil to make pharmaceuticals is unsustainable – not only is it contributing to rising CO₂ emissions, but the price fluctuates dramatically as we are greatly dependent on the geopolitical stability of countries with large oil reserves, and it is only going to get more expensive.”

“Instead of extracting more oil from the ground, we want to replace this in the future with a ‘bio-refinery’ model.

Bi-refinery model

“Our turpentine-based biorefinery model uses waste chemical by-products from the paper industry to produce a spectrum of valuable, sustainable chemicals that can be used in a wide range of applications from perfumes to paracetamol.”

By applying the new method – the turpentine-based biorefinery model, consumers will benefit from using completely plant-derived sustainable pharmaceuticals and reduce their carbon footprint.

Another study exploring the environmental impact of manufacturing common painkillers discovered that bioremediation holds potential for removing pollutants created during the crude oil manufacturing process from the environment.

Biomediation uses bacteria with enhanced degradation abilities to eliminate the pollutants from nature that wastewater treatment plants cannot remove. However, more research is needed to understand the toxicity, degradation mechanisms, and genetic aspects of these drugs.

In contrast, the new model bypasses the method of eliminating toxic residue in the environment as it uses renewables to manufacture a mass produced drug.

It is currently more expensive than the standard production method which manufactures painkillers using oil-based feedstocks. 

The study was published on 18 June in the journal ChemSusChem.

Abstract

Scalable processes have been developed to convert β-pinene into 4-isopropenylcyclohexanone which is then used as a feedstock for the divergent synthesis of sustainable versions of the common painkillers, paracetamol and ibuprofen. Both synthetic routes use Pd(0) catalysed reactions to aromatise the cyclohexenyl rings of key intermediates to produce the benzenoid ring systems of both drugs. The potential of using bioderived 4-hydroxyacetophenone as a drop-in feedstock replacement to produce sustainable aromatic products is also discussed within a terpene biorefinery context.