Focusing on the molecular mechanisms of powerful naturally occurring agents and their implication for drug discovery, this timely book presents an overview of the most recent research advances in the field of bioactive natural products and natural drug formulations to combat today's destructive diseases. To this extent, the authors discuss the most severe neurological disorders in our modern civilization, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's disease, as well as ischemic brain stroke and depression. The emerging diversity of active compounds is covered in detail, including flavonoids, cannabinoids and oleanolic acid, while experts in the field explain the chemistry, mode of action and clinical aspects of novel neuroprotective natural products. In each case, the benefits of treatments using natural products are addressed from the perspective of modern as well as traditional medicine. With its multidisciplinary viewpoint, this is the ideal companion for medicinal and natural products chemists as well as neuroscientists, biochemists, pharmacologists, neurobiologists, and phytotherapists.

"...a useful addition to the bookshelf of every natural material specialist..." -Pharmazie in unserer Zeit, 2010 (review in German) Organized in a classical alphabetical format, this two-volume reference covers 1000 carefully screened natural product structures. For each compound or compund class, a basic chemical characterization is given, followed by a description of the biological source and a discussion of their pharmaceutical potential as lead molecules for new drugs. The letter takes into account the documented uses of many of these compounds in Asian traditional medicine. By way of its clearly structured articles, and with the aid of classification tables in the appendix, this dictionary is easy to use and provides quick and reliable information for researchers as well for scholars and student. Compounds have been selected from the following chemical classes: - Alkaloids - Phenolics - Antibiotics - Polyketides - Carbohydrates - Proteins - Chalcones - Steroids - Coumarins - Terpenoids - Flavonoids - Xanthonoids - Peptides

Natural compounds, which have evolved their function over millions of years, are often more efficient than man-made compounds if a specific biological activity is needed, e.g. as an enzyme inhibitor or as a toxin to kill a cancer cell. This book comprising of sixteen technical chapters, highlights the chemical and biological aspects of potential natural products with an intention of unravelling their pharmaceutical applicability in modern drug discovery processes. Key features: * Covers the synthesis, semi-synthesis and also biosynthesis of potentially bioactive natural products * Features chemical and biological advances in naturally occurring organic compounds describing their chemical transformations, mode of actions, and structure-activity relationships *40 expert scientists from around the world report their latest findings and outline future opportunities for the development of novel and highly potent drugs based on natural products operating at the interface of chemistry and biology * Forward-looking: Addresses opportunities and cutting-edge developments rather than well-documented basic knowledge, pinpoints current trends and future directions in this rapidly-evolving field * Application-oriented: Throughout the book, the focus is on actual and potential applications in pharmacology and biotechnology This book is an essential resource for natural products chemists, medicinal chemists, biotechnologists, biochemists, pharmacologists, as well as the pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries.