Natural Heterocycles: Extraction and Biological Activity

Natural products in the plant kingdom offer a huge diversity of chemical structures that are the result of biosynthetic processes that have been modulated over the millennia through genetic effects. During the last few decades, research into biologically active natural heterocycles has advanced tremendously thanks to contributions from the fields of chemistry, life sciences, food science and material sciences. With the rapid developments in spectroscopic techniques and accompanying advances in high-throughput screening (HTS) techniques, it has become possible to isolate and then determine the structures and biological activity of natural products rapidly, thus opening up exciting new opportunities in the field of new drug development in the pharmaceutical industry. The present book covers the synthesis/extraction and biological evaluation of the naturally occurring heterocycles, providing cutting edge accounts of the fascinating developments in the isolation, structure elucidation, synthesis, biosynthesis and pharmacology of a diverse array of natural products.