Hosakatte Niranjana Murthy - Bioactive Compounds in Underutilized Fruits and Nuts

This reference works series provides a platform for all information on plant metabolites and phytochemicals, their chemistry, properties, applications, and methods. By the strictest definition, phytochemicals are chemicals derived from plants. However, the term is often used to describe the large number of secondary metabolic compounds found in and derived from plants. These metabolites exhibit a number of nutritional and protective functions for human welfare such as colorants, fragrances and flavorings, amino acids, pharmaceuticals, hormones, vitamins and agrochemicals. Besides food, fibers, fuel, cloth and shelter, a vast number of wild plants can hence provide important sources for medicines, especially in developing countries for their traditional health systems. Natural products have inspired and provided the foundation to the bulk of FDA-approved compounds and there is tremendous increase in natural products and natural products derived compounds that have been registered against many prevailing diseases. Natural product industry has shown tremendous growth and is expected to continue to do so in the near future. The present series compiles reference information on various topics and aspects about phytochemicals, including their potential as natural medicine, their role as chemo-preventers, in plant defense, their ecological role, their role in plants as well as for pathogen adaptation, and disease resistance. Volumes in the series also contain information on methods such as metabolomics, genetic engineering of pathways, molecular farming, and obtaining metabolites from lower organisms and marine organisms besides higher plants. The books in the series are hence of relevance in various fields, from chemistry, biology, biotechnology, to pharmacognosy, pharmacology, botany, or medicine. Each volume is edited by leading experts and contains authoritative contributions by renowned authors.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13872

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Plant-derived bioactive compounds research comprises of various areas of plant science with the objective of developing innovative plant metabolites and understanding their bioactive mechanisms. The work involves an amalgamation of data from various disciplines providing information on novel lead metabolites. Progress in plant drug research has flourished because of major contributions from a variety of disciplines enabling isolation, characterization, and testing of bioactive molecules thereby producing plant-based pharmaceutical drugs. A number of medicinal and health-related products have been obtained from plants; however, abundant number of plants have been neglected and their potential has remained unexplored for several reasons. Most of the underutilized plants are nutritionally rich and contain a variety of phytochemicals which need to be explored for their potential uses and to exploit their intrinsic and fundamental values. Nevertheless, underutilized plants continue to languish as untapped resources because of the non-accessibility of their complete botanical data and other relevant information. However, current remarkable progress in analytical chemistry clubbed with meticulous screening of plant products, combinatorial synthesis, plant cell culture technology, and metabolic and genetic engineering have enabled and assisted to interpret and construe numerous constraints encountered in the research on underutilized plants such as sterility, long and low generation time, perennial nature, selection of high-yielding plant sources, peculiar morphological structures, intricate biodiversity, and complex biosynthetic pathways.

Against this backdrop, this book encompasses research work on bioactive compounds of underutilized fruits and nuts across the globe to present latest research on these plants for the enhanced appreciation of this topic. The chapters presented in this volume throw light on a number of research subjects that have provided critical information on synthesis of plant secondary metabolites and their bioactive principles specifically from underutilized fruits and nuts. This book contains analysis of in-depth information on the underutilized plants distribution, morphology, bioassay studies, and metabolic pathways leading to the synthesis of bioactive compounds. Each chapter also provides background information of the plant, chemical structures of the chemical compounds, and a wealth of useful references that should prove to be an invaluable source for the reader. Self-explanatory illustrations and tables have been incorporated in each chapter complimentary to the main text. The topics included in this volume are not intended to be totally comprehensive but our approach has been wide-ranging, presenting the most exciting aspects of bioactive compounds from underutilized fruits and nuts.

We would like to thank and express our deepest gratitude to all contributors who helped us complete this book. We also thank Professor Jean-Michel Merillon and Professor Kishan Gopal Ramawat, Series Editors, for their constant encouragement. We thank Dr. Sylvia Blago and Johanna Klute for their support. Finally, we also express indebtedness and thankfulness to the Springer team for completing this assignment successfully.