Plants and plant-derived compounds and drugs are becoming more and more popular with increasing numbers of scientists researching plant analysis. The quality control of herbal drugs is also becoming essential to avoid severe health problems, and in the future many more new drugs will be developed from plant sources. This three-volume Handbook, featuring 47 detailed review articles, is unique as it deals with chemical and biological methodologies for plant analysis. It presents the most important and most accurate methods which are available for plant analysis. This comprehensive work is divided into six sections as follows: Sample preparation and identification discussing plant selection and collection, followed by extraction and sample preparation methodologies. Extraction and sample preparation methodologies Instrumentation for chemical analysis - several instrumentations for chemical plant analysis are presented with an emphasis on hyphenated techniques, e.g. the coupling between HPLC and mass spectroscometry, and HPLC with NMR. Strategies for selective classes of compounds coverage of the most interesting classes of compounds such as polysaccharides, saponins, cardiotonic glycosides, alkaloids, terpenoids, lipids, volatile compounds and polyphenols ( flavonoids, xanthones, coumarins, naphthoquinones, anthraquinones, proanthocyanidins, etc.). Biological Analysis - includes phenotyping, DNA barcoding techniques, transcriptome analysis , microarray, metabolomics and proteomics. Drugs from Plants covers the screening of plant extracts and strategies for the quick discovery of novel bioactive natural products. Safety assessment of herbal drugs is highly dependent on outstanding chromatographic and spectroscopic methods which are also featured here. This Handbook introduces to scientists involved in plant studies the current knowledge of methodologies in various fields of chemically- and biochemically-related topics in plant research. The content from this Handbook will publish online within the Encyclopedia of Analytical Chemistry via Wiley Online Library: http://www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/ref/eac Benefit from the introductory offer, valid until 30 November 2014! Introductory price: GBP425.00 / $695.0 0 / 550.00 List price thereafter: GBP495.00 / $795.00 / 640.00

This book describes modern preparative chromatography techniques and their application in the separation of natural products, synthetic intermediates, metabolites, macromolecules, and biologically active substances, e.g. new lead compounds from microorganisms and both marine and terrestrial higher organisms. The authors focus their book on the applications and aim to provide the reader with a rapid idea on how to obtain milligram or gram quantities for pure constituents from complex mixtures with minimum effort. Descriptions of apparatus and operation procedures together with numerous examples of actual separations - often widely scattered in literature - are provided. This completely revised second edition has been enlarged by chapters on macromolecule and and enantiomer separation and on preparative GC.

This is the first comprehensive monograph to look in depth at saponins. Saponins are glycosides of triterpenes, steroids or steroid alkaloids which have a very wide distribution in plants and some marine organisms. Their biological activity includes haemolysis and fish poisoning, and the steroid saponins are essential for the manufacture of oral contraceptives and sex hormones. Saponins have also been exploited commercially as soap substitutes and in several other industrial applications. This book gives detailed information on the occurrence and distribution of saponins, their structural types, isolation, analysis and structure determination. Biological and pharmacological activities are discussed, as are aspects of commercial and industrial use. The volume provides a valuable source of data for the different classes of compound and includes and extensive list of references.

This is the first comprehensive monograph to look in depth at saponins. Saponins are glycosides of triterpenes, steroids or steroid alkaloids which have a very wide distribution in plants and some marine organisms. Their biological activity includes haemolysis and fish poisoning, and the steroid saponins are essential for the manufacture of oral contraceptives and sex hormones. Saponins have also been exploited commercially as soap substitutes and in several other industrial applications. This book gives detailed information on the occurrence and distribution of saponins, their structural types, isolation, analysis and structure determination. Biological and pharmacological activities are discussed, as are aspects of commercial and industrial use. The volume provides a valuable source of data for the different classes of compound and includes and extensive list of references.