Molecular self-assembly is a process to obtain a well defined structure from suitable starting materials. The study of self-assembly provides a fundamental understanding of the driving forces and co-operative interaction behind these processes. Among the plenty of molecules, an amphiphilic molecule, containing both hydrophilic and hydrophobic counter parts is one of the interesting building blocks to study the self-assembly processes. In this short review, the hierarchical self-assembly of amphiphilic molecules into various supramolecular architectures such as vesicles, spheres, flowers, tubes and fibrillar networks of nano- to micrometer dimensions and gels have been discussed.

Terpenoids are a versatile group of chemical constituents containg multiple of C5 widely found in the plant metabolites. Rapidly increasing demand for natural products coupled with their various properties and tremendous biological activity has led to the emergence of terpenoids as commercially important compounds with exploring applications in diversified areas in daily life such as medicine, food, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical sectors etc. The realization of their full commercialization requires innovation of new strategies to address the challenges posesed by their structural complexity and diversity in nature. In this short review, we have focused on the various properties and applications of glycyrrzic acid, a triterpene based Saponin in diversified areas of science and technology.