Drug discovery strategies for both pharmaceutical and agrochemical applications are at a stage of rapid development. More than 30 % of sales of drugs for human consumption worldwide are of plant origin. This unique book covers the present status and future potential of natural products in drug discovery. It provides the reader with recent information regarding the impact on drug discovery, development and strategies, technical and automation aspects, and methods based on biochemistry as well as molecular biology, highlighting compounds from natural sources. Special emphasis is placed on the various strategies to gain access to natural compounds and combinatorial approaches by making use of both synthetic and biological methods. Because the renewed interest in the use of natural sources in drug discovery is an important supplement to combinatorial and parallel synthesis approaches, this book is timely and will have a great scientific impact.

The Impact of Natural Products on Drug Discovery

Recent Developments in Drug DiscoveryTechnologies
Technical Aspects
A Central Natural Product Pool- New Approach in Drug Discovery Strategies
Automation Strategies in Drug Discovery
Synergistic Use of Combinatorial and Natural Product Chemistry
Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE) - Novel Strategies in the Processing of Biomaterials
Natural Products from Microbial Sources
Secondary Metabolites: From Past to Present
The Chemical Screening Approach
Myxobaderia as Producers of Secondary Metabolites
Trends in Marine Biotechnology
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Based Methods
Structure Modification via Biological Derivatization Methods
Molecular Biological Aspects of Antibiotic Biosynthesis
Combinatorial Biosynthesis of Antibiotics
Aspects in Application
Impact of Natural Products on Cell Biology: Low-Molecular Mass Effectors of Folding Helper Proteins
Novel Antibacterial Drugs from Microorganisms
New Antibiotics with Novel Mode of Action
Synthetic Combinatorial Libraries: A New Tool for Antimicrobial Agent Discovery
Strobilurins and Oudemansins.