It would be wonderful to create medicine without using toxins. Nature shows us the way.

Since prehistoric times, humanity has empirically used medicinal plants and animals to treat various diseases. Today, threatened by the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria that render one drug after another ineffective, researchers are extracting many new organic substances from marine and terrestrial flora and fauna as candidates for the development of even more powerful drugs. However, we are now in a situation where we must refrain from indiscriminately harvesting these natural resources from the standpoint of environmental protection. Therefore, it is necessary to chemically synthesize active substances to secure the required amounts for various biological tests or to seek bioactive substances more potent than those obtainable from the natural world. In this context, we are creating bioactive substances such as antibacterial agents, anticancer drugs, and agricultural chemicals from the electrolysis of phenol (carbolic acid), a type of "kamenoko" (literally "turtle shell," a colloquial term for the benzene ring). Normally, aromatic compounds, often called "kamenoko," become high-molecular-weight compounds when electrons are removed (a process called an oxidation reaction). However, if this reaction is stopped at a very early stage, they can be extracted as various forms of organic substances. By slightly modifying these substances, they are transformed into bioactive substances. For example, the sunflower plant releases organic substances that hinder the growth of other plants around it, attempting to monopolize nutrients from the soil. By producing this substance through electrolysis, we can create an environmentally friendly herbicide using an environmentally friendly method. The students involved in this research are creating organic substances identical to those produced by nature, but with their own ideas, they are also creating drugs that are far more potent. In the future, we dream of creating highly effective pharmaceuticals and agricultural chemicals using only environmentally friendly electrical energy.