This review summarizes the advances in dereplication technology since 1998, its current status, and the prospects for future development. Developments are being driven by the need to identify novel pharmaceutical and agrochemical lead compounds rapidly and effectively from complex natural matrices, while avoiding spending time or money on the re-isolation and re-identification of known natural products. As many commercial pharmaceuticals and agro-chemicals are at least derived from natural products, and only a small proportion of organisms has yet been examined for biologically active compounds, there is still enormous potential for the identification of many novel agents. In conjunction with modern screening methods, dereplication strategies must have high resolution, be sensitive, rapid, reproducible, and robust. Further, they must include effective data processing and information retrieval systems to permit comparison with internal and external sources of information on known compounds.
