Author Description

This volume contains the presentations of 18 invited speakers at the international symposium entitled "Biologically Active Natural Products" held at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. The aim of the symposium was to present recent advances in the field of isolation and structure elucidation of biologically active natural products of pharmaceutical and agricultural interest, biosynthesis of secondary metabolites as well as structure/activity studies. The topics were not restricted to constituents of higher plants, but included metabolites from fungi and marine organisms. Natural products of plant origin have attracted scientists for centuries. However, within the last ten years there has been a change in the approach to the problem. The majority of phytochemists are no longer interested only in a specific class of plant constituents, but are mainly searching for new biologically active compounds. Thus, isolation which still remains a crucial step in each phytochemical study has to be guided by an appropriate bio-assay. Simple biological test systems are of prime importance in order to identify the active principles of a crude plant extract. Phytochemical investigation is becoming an interdisciplinary area, involving biologists, chemists, biochemists, pharmacists and physicians. The papers are of interest to plant biochemists, natural product chemists, pharmacologists and those with an interest in the scientific basis for natural remedies, and research workers and professionals.