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.