If you want to produce paracetamol (acetaminophen) or ibuprofen in a sustainable way, use β-pinene from biowaste streams as a starting point, suggest UK researchers in ChemSusChem.

Many substances are still derived from fossil sources. As governments and companies increasingly move away from fossil sources, scientists are looking for alternative sources. One such sustainable source can be found in forestry or the citrus juice industry. The waste streams from these industries contain limonene and turpentine, a mixture of monoterpenes such as α-pinene, β-pinene and 3-carene. They can be used as building blocks for everything from medicines and fragrances to biofuels and polymers. Joshua Tibbets, Steven Bull and colleagues at the University of Bath wanted to lead by example and developed a scalable synthesis of paracetamol and ibuprofen using β-pinene as a starting point.