Plant secondary metabolism is an economically important source of fine chemicals, such as drugs, insecticides, dyes, flavours, and fragrances. Moreover, important traits of plants such as taste, flavour, smell, colour, or resistance against pests and diseases are also related to secondary metabolites. The genetic modification of plants is feasible nowadays. What does the possibility of engineering plant secondary metabolite pathways mean? In this book, firstly a general introduction is given on plant secondary metabolism, followed by an overview of the possible approaches that could be used to alter secondary metabolite pathways. In a series of chapters from various authorities in the field, an overview is given of the state of the art for important groups of secondary metabolites. No books have been published on this topic so far. This book will thus be a unique source of information for all those involved with plants as chemical factories of fine chemicals and those involved with the quality of food and ornamental plants. It will be useful in teaching graduate courses in the field of metabolic engineering in plants.

Written by leading international experts in the field of plant metabolic engineering, this book discusses, mainly, applications of plant metabolic engineering. Metabolic engineering, which is part of second generation biotechnology, has made several contributions at basic level as well as at conceptualising products ever since its emergence in the early 1980s. Applications resulting from metabolic engineering are expected to play a very important role in future for plant breeding, e.g. for improved resistance or improved traits concerning health promoting constituents, and production of fine chemicals such as medicines, flavors and fragrances.

In this book, the effect of nutritional habits and wine consumption on ageing and the main degenerative diseases (cardiovascular, cancer, Alzheimer's, etc.) are considered through the most relevant epidemiological and pharmacological studies. Newly isolated wine polyphenols and tannins are presented and their structures and in vitro biological properties are discussed that could strongly support the hypotheses that those molecules could insure beneficial health effects. This book will be of particular interest to people involved in problems of public health, but also in the wine industry or in wine making, as well as to physicians who are concerned by the difficult question of ageing and its related chronic diseases.

The papers assembled in this volume were originally presented at the joint meeting of the Phytochemical Society of North America and Phytochemical Society of Europe held in Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, April 20-23, 1997. The meeting was organized by an international panel of scientists from both societies. The symposium from which the related contributions on phytochemi- cal signaling and plant-microbe interactions were taken was entitled "Commu- nication of Plants with the Environment." The chapters included in this volume cover traditional areas in plant chemical ecology, as well as address fundamental issues on the involvemerrt ofphytochemicals in intra- and interspecific signaling, applications of the knowledge gained from such studies, and evolutionary origins. T.he term microbes is used here in the broadest sense to encompass bacteria, fungi, and nematodes. An array of plant and fungal metabolites ranging from simple phenolics, salicylic acid, hydroxamic acids, flavonoids, polysaccharides, fatty acid derived octadecanoids, to trichothecenes and perylenequinones are discussed. A number of important themes emerge: i) the multifunctional roles of many phytochemi- cals, ii) the power of molecular techniques for studying biosynthetic pathways and gene function, iii) the central role of natural products in pathogenesis and disease resistance, and iv) the identification of promising areas for future research and development of applications. The opening chapter by Osbourn et al. discusses the emerging role and significance of saponins as antifungal agents, compounds already well-docu- mented as important mediators of plant-insect interactions. McCormick et al.

The volumes of this classic series, now referred to simply as "Zechmeister" after its founder, L. Zechmeister, have appeared under the Springer Imprint ever since the series' inauguration in 1938. The volumes contain contributions on various topics related to the origin, distribution, chemistry, synthesis, biochemistry, function or use of various classes of naturally occurring substances ranging from small molecules to biopolymers. Each contribution is written by a recognized authority in his field and provides a comprehensive and up-to-date review of the topic in question. Addressed to biologists, technologists, and chemists alike, the series can be used by the expert as a source of information and literature citations and by the non-expert as a means of orientation in a rapidly developing discipline.

Isocoumarins have been isolated from a wide variety of microbial, plant and insect sources and have been shown to possess an impressive array of biological activities. Since the review by BARRY in 1963 (24), the number of known naturally occurring isocoumarins has increased dramatically. This increase is largely due to improvements in isolation procedures and structural analysis. Previous reviews have concentrated on fungal isocoumarins (293,294) and mycotoxic isocoumarins (301). This review lists over 160 naturally occurring isocoumarins. Leading references on isolation, structure elucidation, biosynthesis and synthesis are given in the accompanying Tables. The known natural isocoumarins are listed in the Tables according to the number and orientation of oxygen atoms on the benzenoid ring and by carbon substituents. For completeness, those isocoumarins bearing additional fused carbocyclic rings and those containing nitro gen substituents are included in separate Tables. It is hoped that by using these Tables in conjunction with the Formula Index, the Trivial Name Index and the Source Index the reader will be able to locate key references in the literature and gain an understanding of the fascin ating chemistry and action of naturally occurring isocoumarins."

In this book, the effect of nutritional habits and wine consumption on ageing and the main degenerative diseases (cardiovascular, cancer, Alzheimer's, etc.) are considered through the most relevant epidemiological and pharmacological studies. Newly isolated wine polyphenols and tannins are presented and their structures and in vitro biological properties are discussed that could strongly support the hypotheses that those molecules could insure beneficial health effects. This book will be of particular interest to people involved in problems of public health, but also in the wine industry or in wine making, as well as to physicians who are concerned by the difficult question of ageing and its related chronic diseases.

Written by leading international experts in the field of plant metabolic engineering, this book discusses how the technology can be applied. Applications resulting from metabolic engineering are expected to play a very important role in the future of plant breeding: for example, in the fields of improved resistance or improved traits concerning health promoting constituents, as well as in the production of fine chemicals such as medicines, flavors and fragrances.

Plant secondary metabolism is an economically important source of fine chemicals, such as drugs, insecticides, dyes, flavours, and fragrances. Moreover, important traits of plants such as taste, flavour, smell, colour, or resistance against pests and diseases are also related to secondary metabolites. The genetic modification of plants is feasible nowadays. What does the possibility of engineering plant secondary metabolite pathways mean? In this book, firstly a general introduction is given on plant secondary metabolism, followed by an overview of the possible approaches that could be used to alter secondary metabolite pathways. In a series of chapters from various authorities in the field, an overview is given of the state of the art for important groups of secondary metabolites. No books have been published on this topic so far. This book will thus be a unique source of information for all those involved with plants as chemical factories of fine chemicals and those involved with the quality of food and ornamental plants. It will be useful in teaching graduate courses in the field of metabolic engineering in plants.