Recent Advances in the Isolation, Chemical and Biological Characterization and Synthesis of Bioactive Metabolites from Plants

Dear Colleagues,

Although thousands of compounds have been discovered and often studied in depth, plants still constitute an almost inexhaustible reserve for the discovery of new bioactive metabolites with potential agricultural, medicinal, nutraceutical, and cosmetic applications. These metabolites belong to all classes of natural compounds such as alkaloids, amino acids, peptides, poliketides, phenyl propanoids, terpenes, etc., and often show original structures that overcome resistance developed by pathogens responsible for serious diseases of plants, animals and humans. Unfortunately, the quantities of these metabolites isolated from plants are not sufficient for their industrial production and thus for their practical use in different fields. Therefore, their enantioselective total synthesis represents a fundamental tool for their large-scale production using convenient and eco-friendly strategies. A fundamental prerequisite for developing such synthetic processes is the determination of the absolute configuration of the metabolites of interest due to its close relationship with their biological activity. The use of specific reactions also allows researchers to prepare derivatives of natural metabolites with increased and more specific biological activity for studying the structure–activity correlation and mechanism of action using synthetic intermediates.

Prof. Dr. Antonio Evidente
Prof. Dr. Stefano Superchi
Guest Editors

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