Chapter 11 Importance of plant secondary metabolites for protection against insects and microbial infections

Abstract

Publisher Summary Plants produce a wide variety of bioactive metabolites that have been partly studied so far. Understanding the physiology, biochemistry, and ecology of secondary metabolism offers an opportunity to breed plants with a better protection against microbes and herbivores. Understanding their molecular pharmacology is a key to exploit bioactive plant chemicals in a rational way in medicine and agriculture (biorational pesticides). The human genome project identifies a large number of new molecular targets. Industry is already employing high throughput screening (HTS) to search for interesting compounds that interact with such a target. Secondary metabolites (SMs) from plants, animals, and microbes, which have been preselected during evolution, offer a chance to obtain relevant ‘‘hits.’’ The search for new active compounds or leads has been correctly termed ‘‘bioprospection,’’ the search for biological gold.