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Artemisinin, a sesquiterpene lactone originally extracted from the medicinal plant Artemisia annua L., is an effective antimalarial agent, particularly for multi-drug resistant and cerebral malaria. However, the concentration of artemisinin in the plant is very low. Because the chemical synthesis of artemisinin is complicated and not economically feasible in view of the poor yield of the drug, the intact plant remains the only viable source of artemisinin production. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the concentration of artemisinin in A. annua to reduce the cost of artemisinin based antimalarial drugs. Plant scientists have focused their efforts on A. annua for a higher artemisinin crop yield. With the present volume, we are bringing together the research which is being done on this plant throughout the world and future possibilities for scientists and researchers who want to work on it.

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Artemisia annua is a well-known medicinal plant that has been utilized for a number of purposes, including malaria, for centuries. This is the first comprehensive book to cover the importance of Artemisia annua in the global health crisis and in the treatment against diseases. A component and extract, artemisinin, is the source of other derivatives which are also suitable for pharmaceutical use. The present demand for artemisinin far outpaces its supply. Researchers are working globally towards improving artemisinin content in the plant by various means. Artemisia annua: Prospects, Applications and Therapeutic Uses highlights the different approaches, including ‘omics', that are being used in current research on this immensely important medicinal plant. Providing comprehensive coverage of the agricultural and pharmaceutical uses of this plant, Artemisia annua will be essential reading for botanists, plant scientists, herbalists, pharmacognosists, pharmacologists and natural product chemists.

Many macro and micro species, from terrestrial and aquatic environments, produce structurally unique compounds and, in many countries, still are the primary sources of medicines. In fact, secondary metabolites are an important source of chemotherapeutic agents but are also lead compounds for synthetic modification and the optimization of biological activity. Therefore, the exploitation of secondary metabolites, or their inspired synthetic compounds, offers excellent opportunities for the pharmaceutical industry. This Medicines Special Issue focuses on the great potential of secondary metabolites for therapeutic application. The Special Issue contains 16 articles reporting relevant experimental results, and an overview of bioactive secondary metabolites, their biological effects, and new methodologies that improve and accelerate the process of obtained lead compounds with regard to new drug development. We would like to thank all 83 authors, from all over the world, for their valuable contributions to this Special Issue.

This book highlights 12 major plants in the Asteraceae family from the aspects of traditional uses as food and medicine, phytochemistry, and pharmacological activities. Asteraceae is one of the largest family of flowering plants comprising over 1,600 plant genera and 32,000 plant species. Plants belonging to this family have a long history of being used as medicinal plants for the treatment of various diseases. Many of them are also used in the preparation of foods, beverages, and also used in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. In addition, plants such as Artemisia annua have played an important role in the discovery of novel drugs. The book summarizes the traditional uses of the plants in the family Asteraceae and their scientific validation, which helps readers understand their relation and impact on human health. It also explains the Phytochemistry of the species and presents the pharmacological activities and mechanisms in detail. Understanding current scientific knowledge will help in the commercialization of products based on these plants and also helps to find the research gaps that should be fulfilled in the future for their optimal use. It also helps in increasing the awareness of the plant species related to conservation, cultivation, and sustainable utilization. This edited volume comprises chapters contributed by experts from around the world.

Bioactive natural products are a rich source of novel therapeutics. Thus, the search for bioactive molecules from nature continues to play an important role in fashioning new medicinal agents. This volume, which comprises sixteen chapters written by active researchers and leading experts in natural products chemistry, brings together an overview of current discoveries in this remarkable field. It also provides information on the industrial application of natural products for medicinal purposes. This book will serve as a valuable resource for researchers to predict promising leads for developing pharmaceuticals to treat various ailments and disease manifestations.

Sesquiterpenes—Advances in Research and Application: 2012 Edition is a ScholarlyEditions™ eBook that delivers timely, authoritative, and comprehensive information about Sesquiterpenes. The editors have built Sesquiterpenes—Advances in Research and Application: 2012 Edition on the vast information databases of ScholarlyNews.™ You can expect the information about Sesquiterpenes in this eBook to be deeper than what you can access anywhere else, as well as consistently reliable, authoritative, informed, and relevant. The content of Sesquiterpenes—Advances in Research and Application: 2012 Edition has been produced by the world’s leading scientists, engineers, analysts, research institutions, and companies. All of the content is from peer-reviewed sources, and all of it is written, assembled, and edited by the editors at ScholarlyEditions™ and available exclusively from us. You now have a source you can cite with authority, confidence, and credibility. More information is available at http://www.ScholarlyEditions.com/.

Plant gene transfer achieved in the early ‘80s paved the way for the exploitation of the potential of gene engineering to add novel agronomic traits and/or to design plants as factories for high added value molecules. For this latter area of research, the term "Molecular Farming" was coined in reference to agricultural applications in that major crops like maize and tobacco were originally used basically for pharma applications. The concept of the “green biofactory” implies different advantages over the typical cell factories based on animal cell or microbial cultures already when considering the investment and managing costs of fermenters. Although yield, stability, and quality of the molecules may vary among different heterologous systems and plants are competitive on a case-to-case basis, still the “plant factory” attracts scientists and technologists for the challenging features of low production cost, product safety and easy scale up. Once engineered, a plant is among the cheapest and easiest eukaryotic system to be bred with simple know-how, using nutrients, water and light. Molecules that are currently being produced in plants vary from industrial and pharmaceutical proteins, including medical diagnostics proteins and vaccine antigens, to nutritional supplements such as vitamins, carbohydrates and biopolymers. Convergence among disciplines as distant as plant physiology and pharmacology and, more recently, as omic sciences, bioinformatics and nanotechnology, increases the options of research on the plant cell factory. “Farming for Pharming” biologics and small-molecule medicines is a challenging area of plant biotechnology that may break the limits of current standard production technologies. The recent success on Ebola fighting with plant-made antibodies put a spotlight on the enormous potential of next generation herbal medicines made especially in the name of the guiding principle of reduction of costs, hence reduction of disparities of health rights and as a tool to guarantee adequate health protection in developing countries.

Covers the structurally diverse secondary metabolites of medicinal plants, including their ethnopharmacological properties, biological activity, and production strategies Secondary metabolites of plants are a treasure trove of novel compounds with potential pharmaceutical applications. Consequently, the nature of these metabolites as well as strategies for the targeted expression and/or purification is of high interest. Regarding their biological and pharmacological activity and ethnopharmacological properties, this book offers a comprehensive treatment of 100 plant species, including Abutilon, Aloe, Cannabis, Capsicum, Jasminum, Malva, Phyllanthus, Stellaria, Thymus, Vitis, Zingiber, and more. It also discusses the cell culture conditions and various strategies used for enhancing the production of targeted metabolites in plant cell cultures. Secondary Metabolites of Medicinal Plants: Ethnopharmacological Properties, Biological Activity and Production Strategies is presented in four parts. Part I provides a complete introduction to the subject. Part II looks at the ethnomedicinal and pharmacological properties, chemical structures, and culture conditions of secondary metabolites. The third part examines the many strategies of secondary metabolites production, including: biotransformation; culture conditions; feeding of precursors; genetic transformation; immobilization; and oxygenation. The last section concludes with an overview of everything learned. -Provides information on cell culture conditions and targeted extraction of secondary metabolites confirmed by relevant literature -Presents the structures of secondary metabolites of 100 plant species together with their biological and pharmacological activity -Discusses plant species regarding their distribution, habitat, and ethnopharmacalogical properties -Presents strategies of secondary metabolites production, such as organ culture, pH, elicitation, hairy root cultures, light, and mutagenesis Secondary Metabolites of Medicinal Plants is an important book for students, professionals, and biotechnologists interested in the biological and pharmacological activity and ethnopharmacological properties of plants.