Medicinal chemists around the world have been inspired by nature and have successfully extracted chemicals from plants. Research on enzymatic modifications of naturally occurring compounds has played a critical role in the search for biologically active molecules to treat diseases. This book explores compounds of interest to researchers and clinicians. It presents a comprehensive analysis about the medicinal chemistry (drug design, structure-activity relationships, permeability data, cytotoxicity, appropriate statistical procedures, molecular modelling studies) of different compounds. Each chapter brings contributions from known scientists explaining experimental results which can be translated into clinical practice. Each chapter follows a specific format for a phytochemical agent with common chemical features: • General background on the (phyto)chemistry of the scaffold • General background on the pharmacological profile of the scaffold • A Description of the proposed derivatives and their advantages with respect to the parent compounds (emphasizing the synthetic approaches and structure-activity relationships) • In silico analysis of the crucial interactions with the biological target • Clinical studies and patent survey (if available) on the new and proposed structures The objective of this book set is to fulfil gaps in currently acquired knowledge with information from the recent years. It serves as a guide for academic and professional researchers and clinicians.

Phenolic compounds as a large class of metabolites found in plants have attracted attention since long time ago due to their properties and the hope that they will show beneficial health effects when taken as dietary supplements. This book presents the state of the art of some of the natural sources of phenolic compounds, for example, medicinal plants, grapes or blue maize, as well as the modern methods of extraction, quantification, and identification, and there is a special section discussing the treatment, removal, and degradation of phenols, an important issue in those phenols derived from the pharmaceutical or petrochemical industries.

The powerful, efficient technique of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is essential to the standardization of plant-based drugs, identification of plant material, and creation of new herbal medicines. Filling the void in this critical area, High Performance Liquid Chromatography in Phytochemical Analysis is the first book to give a comp

This comprehensive review discusses the biosynthesis and catabolism of flavonoids and their regulation in plants. This interesting work approaches the subject matter from both a historical and methodological point of view. It places emphasis on key regulatory enzymic steps in the two pathways leading to the flavonoid basic units as well as the overall pathway within the flavonoid group. This special volume focuses on the known cell-free enzymology at the C15 level, as well as isotopic tracer studies involving the still unknown enzymic steps. This up-to-date text is an excellent resource for all plant physiologists, biological chemists, phytochemists and chemical ecologists.

For hundreds of years, indigenous populations have developed drugs based on medicinal plants. Many practitioners, especially advocates of traditional medicine, continue to support the use of plants and functional foods as methods by which many ailments can be treated. With relevance around the world as a complementary and alternative medicine, advancements for the use of both ethnopharmacology and nutraceuticals in disease must continually be explored, especially as society works to combat chronic illnesses, increasingly resilient infectious diseases, and pain management controversies. The Research Anthology on Recent Advancements in Ethnopharmacology and Nutraceuticals discusses the advancements made in herbal medicines and functional foods that can be used as alternative medical treatments for a variety of illness and chronic diseases. The anthology will further explain the benefits that they provide as well as the possible harm they may do without proper research on the subject. Covering topics such as food additives, dietary supplements, and physiological benefits, this text is an important resource for dieticians, pharmacists, doctors, nurses, medical professionals, medical students, hospital administrators, researchers, and academicians.

The current volume focuses on novel sources of biofungicides, primarily providing complete knowledge of microbial and phytochemical fungicides, studying antifungal activity mechanisms as well as their role in disease management in plants, and fungicide bioremediation. The use of biofungicides as eco-friendly alternative to typical synthetic fungicides is projected to play a significant role in organic farming in the future. Key Features: Discovers novel sources of biofungicides Describes the role of biofungicides in the control of plant diseases Studies antifungal activity mechanisms Explores how to survey and select promising biofungicides

Environmental pollution as a consequence of diverse human activities has become a global concern. Urbanization, mining, industrial revolution, burning of fossil fuels/firewood and poor agricultural practices, in addition to improper dumping of waste products, are largely responsible for the undesirable change in the environment composition. Environmental pollution is mainly classified as air pollution, water pollution, land pollution, noise pollution, thermal pollution, light pollution, and plastic pollution. Nowadays, it has been realized that with the increasing environmental pollution, impurities may accumulate in plants, which are required for basic human uses such as for food, clothing, medicine, and so on. Environmental pollution has tremendous impacts on phenological events, structural patterns, physiological phenomena, biochemical status, and the cellular and molecular features of plants. Exposure to environmental pollution induces acute or chronic injury depending on the pollutant concentration, exposure duration, season and plant species. Moreover, the global rise of greenhouse gases such as carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides, methane, chlorofluorocarbons and ozone in the atmosphere is among the major threats to the biodiversity. They have also shown visible impacts on life cycles and distribution of various plant species. Anthropogenic activities, including the fossil-fuel combustion in particular, are responsible for steady increases in the atmospheric greenhouse gases concentrations. This phenomenon accelerates the global heating. Studies have suggested that the changes in carbon dioxide concentrations, rainfall and temperature have greatly influenced the plant physiological and metabolic activities including the formation of biologically active ingredients. Taken together, plants interact with pollutants, and cause adverse ecological and economic outcomes. Therefore, plant response to pollutants requires more investigation in terms of damage detection, adaptation, tolerance, and the physiological and molecular responses. The complex interplay among other emerging pollutants, namely, radioisotopes, cell-phone radiation, nanoparticles, nanocomposites, heavy metals etc. and their impact on plant adaptation strategies, and possibility to recover, mitigation, phytoremediation, etc., also needs to be explored. Further, it is necessary to elucidate better the process of the pollutant's uptake by plant and accumulation in the food chain, and the plant resistance capability against the various kinds of environmental pollutants. In this context, the identification of tolerance mechanisms in plants against pollutants can help in developing eco-friendly technologies, which requires molecular approaches to increase plant tolerance to pollutants, such as plant transformation and genetic modifications. Pollutant-induced overproduction of reactive oxygen species that cause DNA damage and apoptosis-related alterations, has also been examined. They also trigger changes at the levels of transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome, which has been discussed in this book.