Chemistry and Pharmacology of Naturally Occurring Bioactive Compounds

Abstract

The growing interest in herbs and plants is part of the movements towards the greener economics and lifestyles. In a world where the damaging effects of food processing, over-medication, agriculture-business, increased CO2 emissions and waste are daily more evident, plants have become one of the totem of our times. They, in fact, not only produce the bulk of the world's oxygen, but actively
regulate the amount of carbon, water and hydrogen in the atmosphere, thus probably controlling the temperature range of our planet also. However, plants are not only a crucial source of energy and chemicals, but also a model of frugal use of resources and of energy conservation. Nature is, in fact, the true inventor of combinatorial chemistry that generates molecules with highly sophisticated and unique structures. Plant’s cellular machinery, in fact, is in charge of the generation of the molecular architecture constituting the basis for science and food, pharmaceutical, agricultural, and cosmetic industries' technology development. However, determining the active principle of the blends obtained from vegetables, gives place to the performance of organic and analytical chemistry.