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...

R. VERPOORTE Division of Pharmacognosy, section Metabolomics, IBL, Leiden University PO Box 9502, 2300RA Leiden, The Netherlands, Email: VERPOORT@LACDR.LeidenUniv.NL In the past years the interest in plant secondary has increased rapidly. Three major reasons can be mentioned for this. First because plants are a major source for the production of medicines and the development of novel medicines; second because plants contain health promoting secondary metabolites, third because of the interest in the resistance of plants against pests and diseases in which the secondary metabolism plays a...

To date, several possibilities exist to change the genetics of plants including classical breeding and modern molecular biological approaches such as recombinant DNA techniques and plant trans formation methods. The aim of this publication is to review the feasibilities, offered by the current technologies, to modify flower colours. Due to the great importance of anthocyanins as flower pigments, the main part of this study deals with this class of flavonoids responsible for most red-, purple- and blue colours. Being electron deficient, the flavylium nucleus of the anthocyanins is highly...

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...

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...

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...

R. VERPOORTE Division of Pharmacognosy, section Metabolomics, IBL, Leiden University PO Box 9502, 2300RA Leiden, The Netherlands, Email: VERPOORT@LACDR.LeidenUniv.NL In the past years the interest in plant secondary has increased rapidly. Three major reasons can be mentioned for this. First because plants are a major source for the production of medicines and the development of novel medicines; second because plants contain health promoting secondary metabolites, third because of the interest in the resistance of plants against pests and diseases in which the secondary metabolism plays a...

Since 1984 and 1988, when meetings were held on the topic of primary and secondary metabolism of plant cell cultures, there has been a clear shift of the focus of ongoing research. While the cell culture itself and the production of secondary metabolites and the biosynthetic pathways and the activity of enzymes were major topics, now these aspects are linked with genes, i.e. molecular biology becomes more prominent. This book has contributions on such subjects as fermentation, enzymology of secondary metabolism, catabolism of secondary metabolites, elicitation of pathways and genetic...

Covers traditional areas in plant chemical ecology and addresses fundamental issues on the involvement of phytochemicals in signaling within and between species, applications of the knowledge gained from such studies, and evolutionary origins. The 12 papers pivot on the themes of the multifunctional

Since 1984 and 1988, when meetings were held on the topic of primary and secondary metabolism of plant cell cultures, there has been a clear shift of the focus of ongoing research. While the cell culture itself and the production of secondary metabolites and the biosynthetic pathways and the activity of enzymes were major topics, now these aspects are linked with genes, i.e. molecular biology becomes more prominent. This state-of-the-art book has contributions on such subjects as fermentation, enzymology of secondary metabolism, catabolism of secondary metabolites, elicitation of pathways and...