This volume surveys the chemistry, biochemistry, biosynthesis, metabolism, and pharmacological properties of lectins. After a chemically orientated first chapter dealing with specificity and a second chapter on structure, in the rest of the book lectins are looked at from a biological point of view. Their involvement in metabolism and biosynthesis, the distribution and localization in plant tissues and their role in interactions with the outside world are discussed in chapters 3 and 4. The last two chapters deal with the effects of lectins on various cells of the body including blood, gut,...