Plant secondary metabolites have been a fertile area of chemical investigation for many years, driving the development of both analytical chemistry and of new synthetic reactions and methodologies. The subject is multi-disciplinary with chemists, biochemists and plant scientists all contributing to our current understanding. In recent years there has been an upsurge in interest from other disciplines, related to the realisation that secondary metabolites are dietary components that may have a considerable impact on human health, and to the development of gene technology that permits modulation of the contents of desirable and undesirable components. Plant Secondary Metabolites: Occurrence, Structure and Role in the Human Diet addresses this wider interest by covering the main groups of natural products from a chemical and biosynthetic perspective with illustrations of how genetic engineering can be applied to manipulate levels of secondary metabolites of economic value as well as those of potential importance in diet and health. These descriptive chapters are augmented by chapters showing where these products are found in the diet, how they are metabolised and reviewing the evidence for their beneficial bioactivity.

Life has evolved as a unified system; no organism exists similar role also has been suggested for fatty acids from alone, but each is in intimate contact with other organisms cyanolipids. Nonprotein amino acids, cyanogenic glyco and its environment. Historically, it was easier for workers sides, and the non-fatty-acid portion of cyanolipids also are in various disciplines to delimit artificially their respective incorporated into primary metabolites during germination. areas of research, rather than attempt to understand the entire Secondary metabolites of these structural types are accumu system of living organisms. This was a pragmatic and neces lated in large quantities in the seeds of several plant groups sary way to develop an understanding for the various parts. where they probably fulfill an additional function as deter We are now at a point, however, where we need to investi rents to general predation. gate those things common to the parts and, specifically, those The second type of relationship involves interaction of things that unify the parts. The fundamental aspects of many plants with other organisms and with their environment. Bio of these interactions are chemical in nature. Plants constitute logical interactions must be viewed in the light of evolution an essential part of all life systems; phytochemistry provides ary change and the coadaptation, or perhaps coevolution, of a medium for linking several fields of study.

The increase in global population, urbanization and industrialization is resulting in the conversion of cultivated land into wasteland. Providing food from these limited resources to an ever-increasing population is one of the biggest challenges that present agriculturalists and plant scientists are facing. Environmental stresses make this situation even graver. Plants on which mankind is directly or indirectly dependent exhibit various mechanisms for their survival. Adaptability of the plants to changing environment is a matter of concern for plant biologists trying to reach the goal of food security. Despite the induction of several tolerance mechanisms, sensitive plants often fail to withstand these environmental extremes. Using new technological approaches has become essential and imperative. Plant-Environment Interaction: Responses and Approaches to Mitigate Stress throws light on the changing environment and the sustainability of plants under these conditions. It contains the most up-to-date research and comprehensive detailed discussions in plant physiology, climate change, agronomy and forestry, sometimes from a molecular point of view, to convey in-depth understanding of the effects of environmental stress in plants, their responses to the environment, how to mitigate the negative effects and improve yield under stress. This edited volume is written by expert plant biologists from around the world, providing invaluable knowledge to graduate and undergraduate students in plant biochemistry, food chemistry, plant physiology, molecular biology, plant biotechnology, and environmental sciences. This book updates scientists and researchers with the very latest information and sustainable methods used for stress tolerance, which will also be of considerable interest to plant based companies and institutions concerned with the campaign of food security.

Plant secondary metabolites are a diverse group of compounds that contribute to many important biological and ecological functions. They are synthesized by plants to interact with the biotic and abiotic environments, playing roles in plant defense, growth, and development. Additionally, plant secondary metabolites have widespread applications in human industries, including food additives, cosmetics, dyes, insecticides, and drugs. The biosynthesis of these compounds is complex and dynamic, with more than one million secondary metabolites identified from terrestrial and aquatic plants. Despite their diversity, plants produce limited quantities of secondary metabolites in a metabolic cost-saving way. This has greatly limited their commercial production, and the overexploitation of source plants has raised concerns about their sustainability and highlighted the need for advanced research. Recent advances in genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and other omics technologies have revolutionized our understanding of plant biology, enabling the discovery of new plant secondary metabolites and their biosynthetic pathways. Functional genomics approaches, such as genome-wide association studies, transcriptome analysis, and gene editing, have facilitated the identification and characterization of genes and enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of specific secondary metabolites. Metabolic engineering and synthetic biology approaches have enabled the manipulation of plant secondary metabolism to improve the yield and quality of specific metabolites of interest or to produce them in heterologous cultures. These advances have created new opportunities for the sustainable production and utilization of plant secondary metabolites.

The book entitled "Plant Secondary Metabolites" is divided in 11 chapters with broader headings which include introduction, History, Biosynthesis, Essential Oils/Terpenes/Terpenoids, Alkaloids, Glycosides, Gums & Mucilages Oleoresins, Plant amines, Techniques and Biotechnological approaches. 45 tables, 60 figures, chemical equations and colour photographs have been used to make the information useful for under-graduate and post-graduate students of agriculture, ayurveda, pharmacy, naturopathy and home sciences to enrich their knowledge is not only scare but is also scattered and hence an attempt has been made here to provide the best available information to students, researchers and faculties in resembling disciplines under one roof.

This book was developed from the proceedings of the American Chemical Society, Division of Agricultural & Food Chemistry, subdivision of Natural Products Symposium "Biosynthesis and Metabolism of Secondary Natural Products" held in Atlanta, Georgia, April 1991. The objective of the conference was to bring together people from apparently diverse fields, ranging from biotechnology, metabolism, mechanistic organic chemistry, enzymology, fermentation, and biosynthesis, but who share a common interest in either the biosynthesis or the metabolism of natural products. It is our intention to help bridge the gap between the fields of mechanistic bio-organic chemistry and biotechnology. Our thanks go to Dr. Henry Yokoyama, co-organizer of the symposium, the authors who so kindly contributed chapters, the conference participants, and to those who assisted in the peer review process. We also thank the financial supporters of the symposium: ACS/AGFD, NIH General Medical Sciences, and the agricultural, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and chromatography companies. A full list of the supporting corporations and institutions is given on the following page. Pharma-Tech and P.C., Inc. are manufacturers of instrumentation for high-speed countercurrent chromatography. We thank the Agricultural Research Service and the U. S. Department of Agriculture for granting me permission to co-organize the conference and for us to complete the book. Richard J. Petroski Susan P. McCormick USDA, ARS, National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research Peoria, IL 61604 June 10, 1992 vii CONTENTS ANTIBIOTICS Polyketide Synthetases: Enzyme Complexes and Multifunctional Proteins Directing the Biosynthesis of Bacterial Metabolites from Fatty Acids. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 . . . . . . . . . . .

Secondary metabolites are organic compounds that are not directly involved in the normal growth, development, or reproduction of an organism. The secondary metabolites are produced majorly by plants and are called phytochemicals, also by microbes such as bacteria, fungi, algae and so on. These secondary metabolites plays a major role in defensive mechanism in plants, as well as its components are used in food industry, pharmaceuticals and so on. The applications and sources of each secondary metabolite is clearly discussed. We are very much thankful for the publisher who readily accepts and publish this subject. Also the author is very much thankful to her research team Mridul Umesh, Thazeem Basheer, Poorna Chandrika Sabapathy, Sabarinathan Devaraj and Sathishkumar Swamiappan for contributing their help and support for this work. The next edition of this book will more precisely discuss on the extraction and purification of the secondary metabolites.

Plant secondary metabolism is an economically important source of fine chemicals, such as drugs, insecticides, dyes, flavours, and fragrances. Moreover, important traits of plants such as taste, flavour, smell, colour, or resistance against pests and diseases are also related to secondary metabolites. The genetic modification of plants is feasible nowadays. What does the possibility of engineering plant secondary metabolite pathways mean? In this book, firstly a general introduction is given on plant secondary metabolism, followed by an overview of the possible approaches that could be used to alter secondary metabolite pathways. In a series of chapters from various authorities in the field, an overview is given of the state of the art for important groups of secondary metabolites. No books have been published on this topic so far. This book will thus be a unique source of information for all those involved with plants as chemical factories of fine chemicals and those involved with the quality of food and ornamental plants. It will be useful in teaching graduate courses in the field of metabolic engineering in plants.

This comprehensive and interdisciplinary handbook provides a bird’s-eye view of two centuries of research on secondary metabolites of the two large Solanales families, Solanaceae and Convolvulaceae. In this book they’re arranged according to their biosynthetic principles, while the occurrence and chemical structures of almost all known individual secondary metabolites are covered, which are found in hundreds of wild as well as cultivated solanaceous and convolvulaceous species.

This book is devoted to the fascinating superfamily of plant ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters and their variety of transported substrates. It highlights their exciting biological functions, covering aspects ranging from cellular detoxification, through development, to symbiosis and defense. Moreover, it also includes a number of chapters that center on ABC transporters from non-Arabidopsis species. ABC proteins are ubiquitous, membrane-intrinsic transporters that catalyze the primary (ATP-dependent) movement of their substrates through biological membranes. Initially identified as an essential aspect of a vacuolar detoxification process, genetic work in the last decade has revealed an unexpectedly diverse variety of ABC transporter substrates, which include not only xenobiotic conjugates, but also heavy metals, lipids, terpenoids, lignols, alkaloids and organic acids. The discovery that members of the ABCB and ABCG family are involved in the movement of phytohormones has further sparked their exploration and provided a new understanding of the whole family. Accordingly, the trafficking, regulation and structure-function of ABCB-type auxin transporters are especially emphasized in this book.