Natural Products Chemistry

As a source of medicines, plants have formed the basis for sophisticated traditional systems and continue providing mankind with new remedies. About twenty five percentage of all medical prescriptions are based on substances derived from plants or plant-derived synthetic analogues. To avoid hazards associated with the wrong use of medicinal herbs, isolation and structure-elucidation, as well as the physiological activity assessment represent the scientific basis to safe medicaments. This book contains some methods of extraction, fractionation, separation and purification of natural products from a plant species, as well as structure elucidation by spectral tools. This book, therefore, provides young researchers in the field of Natural Products Chemistry, who are willing to build up their competencies, with some practical techniques in extraction, separation, purification, spectral analysis, and structure-elucidation of natural products. This book describes working in low or moderately sophisticated lab equipment and facilities, which is a good start for beginners and for researchers in poor countries.