Natural products play an integral and ongoing role in promoting numerous aspects of scientific advancement, and many aspects of basic research programs are intimately related to natural products. With articles written by leading authorities in their respective fields of research, Studies in Natural Products Chemistry, Volume 37 presents current frontiers and future guidelines for research based on important discoveries made in the field of bioactive natural products. It is a valuable source for researchers and engineers working in natural products and medicinal chemistry. Describes the chemistry of bioactive natural products Contains contributions by leading authorities in the field A valuable source for researchers and engineers working in natural product and medicinal chemistry

Notoriously cumbersome to isolate and challenging to synthesize, the path of natural products to viable drugs is an arduous journey. Yet compounds isolated from nature may possess fascinating structures, biological profiles and pharmaceutical potential far greater than anything made by man. Natural Products Chemistry: Sources, Separations and Structures presents a practical guide to sourcing, isolating, and discovering new compounds from nature many of which become pharmaceutical drugs. This book emphasizes the challenges and advantages of products acquired from nature, compared to those obtained from combinatorial chemistry. A basic introduction, the book describes the whole cycle from farm to final compound, backed up by case studies drawn from industry and research applications. It broadens the scope of applications and draws upon examples from various sources. Natural products chemistry, as taught today, draws its examples mainly from marine chemistry or plant chemistry; however, there is also a fascinating and rich world of fermented (microbial and algal) products leading to complex structures. Thus, the book draws upon examples from the microbial world and from insects too. Therefore, this is a source of bioactive metabolites, not traditionally available in academic settings, more the mainstay of the pharmaceutical industry. Providing a roadmap of the process of collecting a compound from nature, isolating the active ingredient, and determining the chemical structure, this book provides a unique approach to the world of natural products.

Natural products chemistry-the chemistry of metabolite products of plants, animals and microorganisms-is involved in the investigation of biological phenomena ranging from drug mechanisms to gametophytes and receptors and drug metabolism in the human body to protein and enzyme chemistry. Introduction to Natural Products Chemistry has collected the

This text provides a comprehensive summary of where natural product chemistry is today in drug discovery. It covers emerging technologies and case studies and is a source of up-to-date information on the topical subject of natural products.

Natural Products provides an insight into significant developments in some of the promising areas of natural products chemistry. Natural products are of great interest and promise in the present day research directed towards drug design and discovery. This book brings together leading scientists of the world, an overview of current discoveries and trends in this remarkable field. The topics, ranging from natural products chemistry and phytochemistry in their most basic form to molecular biology, pharmacology and in silico drug design, summarize years of extensive research in each area, and provide insight in the new themes of natural products research. The book serves as a valuable resource for researchers in their own fields to predict promising leads for developing pharmaceuticals to treat various ailments and disease manifestations; it also motivates young scientists to the dynamic field of bioactive natural products research.

Studies in Natural Products Chemistry: Bioactive Natural Products (Part I) contains articles written by leading authorities in their respective fields of research. It presents current frontiers and future guidelines for research based on important discoveries made in the field of bioactive natural products. Volume 28 is part of a great family of useful reference books Illustrates the types of critical discoveries that emerge from the interface of chemistry and biology Contributions are from well-respected authors

Lichens are fascinating symbiotic organisms, biosynthesizing a broad spectrum of interesting secondary metabolites and polysaccharides. A considerable number of them have been found to exert biological activities, such as antibiotic, antimycobacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antipyretic, antiproliferative, and cytotoxic effects. Only a very low percentage of “lichen substances” have been actually screened for their biological activities and their potential therapeutic applications in medicine. This is due to difficulties to obtain large quantities of lichens from nature, isolated lichen fungi and algae from cultures for extractions. Ten years ago, we have started to bypass these problems by introducing first traditional and then by exploring novel microbiological techniques and advanced molecular tools for our culture experiments. “Case studies” with selected cultured mycobionts and photobionts, accumulating considerable quantities of a focused compound, have been performed as tests for large-scale culturing, to be able to utilize facilities like phytotrons and bioreactors (small-scale bioreactors) for future approaches. Further studies have focused on the chemical identification of the metabolites from cultures and the genetic characterization of lichen PKS genes (Polyketide synthase genes). Another interesting group of lichen metabolites is cell wall polysaccharides. All lichen species investigated so far produce these polymers in considerable amounts and many of them have been shown to exhibit antitumor, immunostimulating, antiviral as well as other types of biological activity. Lichens polysaccharides are mainly of the following structural types: α-glucans (isolichenan, nigeran, pseudonigeran, and pullulan), β-glucans (lichenan, pustulan, laminaran, and lentinan-type glucan), galactomannans, and complex heteroglycans (galactoglucomannan, galactomannoglucan, rhamnopyranosylgalactofuranan, and glucomannan). Investigations on lichen polysaccharides were carried out using material extracted from the entire thallus with no mention of the origin of component polymers (fungal partner or photobiont). In order to understand the contribution of the symbiotic partners to the polysaccharide present in the lichen thallus, the carbohydrates produced by some aposymbiotically cultured mycobionts and photobionts (Trebouxia, Asterochloris, and Coccomyxa) were analyzed. The studies demonstrated that most of the polysaccharides previously found in the symbiotic thalli were also produced by the aposymbiotically cultivated fungal partner, while there were no similarities between the polysaccharides extracted from the photobiont with those from the respective lichen. Surprisingly, the photobionts synthesized very interesting polysaccharides, such as β-galactofuranan, mannogalactofuranan, rhamnopyranosylgalactofuranan, and an O-methylated mannogalactan. One of them was biologically active, having in vitro activity on murine peritoneal macrophages.