Secondary metabolites, also known as phytochemicals, natural products or plant constituents are responsible for medicinal properties of plants to which they belong. The role they play in the plant is not, to date, wel...Secondary metabolites, also known as phytochemicals, natural products or plant constituents are responsible for medicinal properties of plants to which they belong. The role they play in the plant is not, to date, well known or understood, but it may be beyond the protection. Their classification is based on chemical structure, composition, their solubility in various solvents, or the pathway by which they are synthesized. The main classification system includes three major groups： terpenoids, alkaloids and phenolics. For each one, we find subclasses with complexity in structure. In this review, we deal with the description of second metabolites, their biosynthesis, function, and the current pharmacological findings. Natural products are an important source of drug candidates in pharmaceutical industry, more deeply we understand them, the easier it is for scientists to intervene in alleviating different kind of diseases. The recent references have been consulted for presenting updated information, but also showing the new potentialities of plant second metabolites in drug research and development.展开更多
基金This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China （81373890） the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education （20121210110011）, and the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin （No. 12JCZDJC26100）.
文摘Secondary metabolites, also known as phytochemicals, natural products or plant constituents are responsible for medicinal properties of plants to which they belong. The role they play in the plant is not, to date, well known or understood, but it may be beyond the protection. Their classification is based on chemical structure, composition, their solubility in various solvents, or the pathway by which they are synthesized. The main classification system includes three major groups： terpenoids, alkaloids and phenolics. For each one, we find subclasses with complexity in structure. In this review, we deal with the description of second metabolites, their biosynthesis, function, and the current pharmacological findings. Natural products are an important source of drug candidates in pharmaceutical industry, more deeply we understand them, the easier it is for scientists to intervene in alleviating different kind of diseases. The recent references have been consulted for presenting updated information, but also showing the new potentialities of plant second metabolites in drug research and development.
