Quinine Total Synthesis

In total synthesis, the Quinine total synthesis describes the efforts in synthesis of quinine over a 150 year period. The development of synthetic quinine is considered a milestone in organic chemistry although it has never been produced industrially as a substitute for natural occurring quinine. The subject has also been attended with some controversy: in 2001 Gilbert Stork published the first stereoselective quinine synthesis and he shed doubt (calling it a myth) on the earlier claim in 1944 by Bob Woodward and William Doering on account that they had obtained not quinine but a precursor molecule. In 2001, an editorial in Chemical & Engineering News supported Storks claim but according to a critical 30 page review in this matter published in 2007 in Angewandte Chemie the Woodward/Doering claim is valid.