Natural products are usually used as therapeutic drugs and good lead compounds after structural modification and transformation due to their structural diversity and unique biological activities. Because of the characteristics of chiral scaffolds, biocompatibility, and various modification sites, the novel functional molecules based on natural products were designed and applied in molecular and ion recognition. In this review, the development of functional molecules based on natural products in molecular and ion recognition, including cation recognition, anion recognition, dual responsive recognition for ions, molecular recognition, chiral recognition and so on are briefly summarized.

Contents
1 Introduction
2 Cation recognition of natural products
2.1 Alkali metal ions recognition
2.2 Transition metal ions recognition
3 Anion recognition of natural products
4 Dual responsive recognition for ions
5 Molecular recognition of natural products
5.1 Chiral recognition
5.2 Chemical reaction-mediated recognition
5.3 Inclusion interaction
5.4 Hydrogen bonding interaction
6 Conclusion and outlook