Textbook of natural products

Research in natural products has advanced tremendously through the fields of chemistry, life, food and material sciences.

Comaprisons of natural products form microorganisms, lower eukaryotes, animals, higher plants and marine organisms are now well documented.

Natural products are ubiquitous in our everyday lives.

They are active constitutents of many medicines, vitamns, food additives, flavours and fragrances, agrochemicals and pesticides used for plant protection.

Most of the natural products are optically active. Numerous universities offer an MSc course on natural products.

However, there is no comprehensive book for students on various topics covered in these syllabi.

This text aims to provide an easy to read overview of the subject.

Each chapter includes general introduction, nomenclature occurrence, isolation, detection, structure elucidation both by degradation and spectroscopic techniques, biosynthesis, synthesis, biological activity and commercial applications, if any, of the compounds mentioned. Key features include: source providing an overview of natural products; questions; reference for future reading; and general introduction of natural products and appendix containing introduction to chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques.