This book describes current understandings and recent progress in four areas: in the first one, the cytochalasans, a group of fungal derived natural products characterized by a perhydro-isoindolone core fused with a macrocyclic ring are shown to exhibit high structural diversity and a broad spectrum of bioactivities. The second one is dedicated to a description of bioactive compounds from the medicinal plants of Myanmar, the third one is dedicated to new structure elucidation techniques in the field of sesquiterpenes. The last one discusses the endogenous natural products that are produced by human cells including endogenous amines, steroids, and fatty acid derived natural products. The co-metabolism and natural product production of the human microbiome is also described including tryptophan, bile acids, choline, and cysteine.

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This book describes current understandings and recent progress into a varied group of natural products. In the first chapter the role that total synthesis may play in revising the structures proposed for decanolides, which are ten-membered lactones found primarily in fungi, frogs, and termites is presented. The following chapter presents the development of the intriguing plant-derived sesquiterpene lactone, thapsigargin, a potent inhibitor of the enzyme, SERCA (sarco-endoplasmic Ca2+ ATPase), which has potential as a lead compound to treat cancer. The third chapter covers the potential of various plant phenolic compounds for treating the tropical and sub-tropical infectious disease, leishmaniasis. In addition the volume presents recent advances related to the plant alkaloid, cryptolepine, which is of particular interest as a lead for the treatment of malaria, trypanosomiasis, and cancer.

The first chapter describes the oldest method of communication between living systems in Nature, the chemical language. Plants, due to their lack of mobility, have developed the most sophisticated way of chemical communication. Despite that many examples involve this chemical communication process - allelopathy, there is still a lack of information about specific allelochemicals released into the environment, their purpose, as well as in-depth studies on the chemistry underground. These findings are critical to gain a better understanding of the role of these compounds and open up a wide range of possibilities and applications, especially in agriculture and phytomedicine. The most relevant aspects regarding the chemical language of plants, namely, kind of allelochemicals have been investigated, as well as their releasing mechanisms and their purpose, are described in this chapter. The second chapter is focused on the natural products obtained from Hypericum L., a genus of the family Hypericaceae within the dicotyledones. Hypericum has been valued for its important biological and chemical properties and its use in the treatment of depression and as an antibacterial has been well documented in primary literature and ethnobotanical reports. The present contribution gives a comprehensive summary of the chemical constituents and biological effects of this genus. A comprehensive account of the chemical constituents including phloroglucinol derivatives, xanthones, dianthrones, and flavonoids is included. These compounds show a diverse range of biological activities that include antimicrobial, cytotoxic, antidepressant-like, and antinociceptive effects. The third chapter addresses microtubule stabilizers, which are a mainstay in the treatment of many solid cancers and are often used in combination with molecularly targeted anticancer agents and immunotherapeutics. The taccalonolides are a unique class of such microtubule stabilizers isolated from plants of Tacca species that circumvent clinically relevant mechanisms of drug resistance. Although initial reports suggested that the microtubule stabilizing activity of the taccalonolides is independent of direct tubulin binding, additional studies have found that potent C-22,23 epoxidated taccalonolides covalently bind the Aspartate 226 residue of β-tubulin and that this interaction is critical for their microtubule stabilizing activity. Some taccalonolides have demonstrated in vivo antitumor efficacy in drug-resistant tumor models with exquisite potency and long-lasting antitumor efficacy as a result of their irreversible target engagement. The recent identification of a site on the taccalonolide scaffold that is amenable to modification has provided evidence of the specificity of the taccalonolide-tubulin interaction and the opportunity to further optimize the targeted delivery of the taccalonolides to further improve their anticancer efficacy and potential for clinical development.

In this book, chemical studies are described mainly from literature reports appearing since 2000, inclusive of investigations performed by the present authors, on the diversity in secondary metabolites of Ligularia growing in the Hengduan Mountains area of China, focusing on eremophilane sesquiterpenoids and other metabolites. More than 100 Ligularia species and their related genera in the plant family Senecioneae plants (Cremanthodium, Cacalia, Senecio, and others) grow in East Asia. For many years, researchers have studied the chemical constituents of these plants, and terpenoids, flavonoids, steroids, alkaloids, and aromatic compounds have been isolated. Among these, in particular, numerous sesquiterpenoids were reported. Within this book terpenoids and aromatic compounds (total 1049), both previously unknown and known, are presented. Finally, genetic studies and synthesis investigations are briefly reviewed.

The first chapter in volume 111 summarizes research on the sesterterpenoids, which are known as a relatively small group of natural products. However, they express a variety of simple to complicated chemical structures. This chapter focuses on the chemical structures of sesterterpenoids and how their structures are synthesized in Nature. The second chapter is devoted to marine-derived fungi, which play an important role in the search for structurally unique secondary metabolites, some of which show promising pharmacological activities that make them useful leads for drug discovery. Marine natural product research in China in general has made enormous progress in the last two decades as described in this chapter on fungal metabolites. This contribution covers 613 new natural products reported from 2001 to 2017 from marine-derived fungi obtained from algae, sponges, corals, and other marine organisms from Chinese waters.

This volume consists of four chapters that cover a structurally diverse range of naturally occurring compounds. Chapter 1 delves into the chemistry of pyrogallols and their oxidized products, the hydroxy-o-quinones, including their role in cycloaddition reactions in the chemical synthesis of several fungal metabolites. Chapter 2 provides an in-depth description of the constituents of agarwood essential oil and smoke samples that are used in the perfumery industry, with an emphasis on the sesquiterpenoid and chromones constituents so far known. Chapter 3 discusses the defensive chemical ecology of two North American newt species that both produce tetrodotoxin, a well-known neurotoxin that causes paralysis and death in metazoans by disrupting electrical signals in the nerves and muscles. Chapter 4 discusses the limonoids and triterpenoids from the genus Walsura of the plant family Meliaceae, of which a number of species are utilized in several southeastern Asian countries in systems of folk medicine.

The first contribution presents coumarins, the largest group of 1-benzopyran derivatives found in plants. Coumarin chemistry remains one of the major interest areas of phytochemists, especially because of their structural diversity and medicinal properties, along with the wide-ranging bioactivities of these compounds, inclusive of analgesic, anticoagulant anti-HIV, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antineoplastic, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory effects. The second contribution presents a comprehensive survey of the many aspects of PAD biochemistry and physiology. The third contribution gives a comprehensive overview of secondary metabolites from higher fungi, with more than 700 references highlighting the isolation, structure elucidation, biological activities, chemical synthesis, and biosynthesis of pigments, nitrogen-containing compounds, and terpenoids from mushrooms.

The volumes of this classic series, now referred to simply as "Zechmeister” after its founder, L. Zechmeister, have appeared under the Springer Imprint ever since the series’ inauguration in 1938. The volumes contain contributions on various topics related to the origin, distribution, chemistry, synthesis, biochemistry, function or use of various classes of naturally occurring substances ranging from small molecules to biopolymers. Each contribution is written by a recognized authority in his field and provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the topic in question. Addressed to biologists, technologists, and chemists alike, the series can be used by the expert as a source of information and literature citations and by the non-expert as a means of orientation in a rapidly developing discipline.

The volumes of this classic series, now referred to simply as "Zechmeister” after its founder, L. Zechmeister, have appeared under the Springer Imprint ever since the series’ inauguration in 1938. The volumes contain contributions on various topics related to the origin, distribution, chemistry, synthesis, biochemistry, function or use of various classes of naturally occurring substances ranging from small molecules to biopolymers. Each contribution is written by a recognized authority in his field and provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the topic in question. Addressed to biologists, technologists, and chemists alike, the series can be used by the expert as a source of information and literature citations and by the non-expert as a means of orientation in a rapidly developing discipline.