Natural Products and Chemical Biology; Food Chemistry

D Crich, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, USA

2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
The Natural Products, Chemical Biology, and Food Chemistry topic of the Chemistry, Molecular Sciences and Engineering (CMSE)
module is built on the extraordinary basis provided by Comprehensive Natural Products Series I and II published in 1999 and
2010, respectively, together with the more chemical sections of the material presented originally in the 2007 Comprehensive
Glycoscience set of volumes. It also includes the discipline of food chemistry. As chemical synthesis is covered in the Organic
Methodology and Organic Synthesis module of CMSE it is not generally covered here, with the exception of oligosaccharide
synthesis, peptide synthesis, and nucleotide synthesis. Natural Products chemistry also has much overlap with medicinal chemistry;
articles written from the natural products perspective of drug discovery can be found in this module, whereas more extensive
coverage of medicinal chemistry approaches to specific therapeutic targets can be found in the companion module on Medicinal
and Pharmaceutical Chemistry.
The Secondary Metabolite Organization and Biosynthesis section of this module includes reviews on all aspects of the
biosynthesis of polyketides, of the isoprenoids, of porphyrins and chlorins, of peptide-based natural products, and of lignans
and phenolic natural products.
The Secondary Metabolite Sources and Diversity section of this module focuses attention on the enormous diversity of natural
products and of the sources from which they are derived. Areas covered include plants, microorganisms, insects, marine natural
products, and ethnopharmacology. Attention is also drawn to the ever increasing use of bioinformatics and genomics in the search
for and discovery of new natural products.
The section on Development and Modification of Bioactivity is primarily focused on the supply of natural products, their use as
lead sources for drug development, and their modification by biological means in the pursuit of improved activity.
The Chemical Ecology section contains articles covering all aspects of semiochemicals, be they pheromones or allelochemicals.
The section entitled Amino Acids and Their Derivatives, Peptides and Proteins covers a wide variety of subjects centered on the
structural variety of amino acid and peptide-based natural products, on the their biosynthesis, and on their posttranslational
modifications.
The nucleic acids section surveys ribo and 2-deoxyribonucleosides and nucleotides, including structure, modification, associ-
ation with natural products, and function. The section also surveys the chemical synthesis of oligonucleotides.
The section on Carbohydrates, Saccharides and Polysaccharides focuses on the biosynthesis of saccharides and their oligomers
and polymers, their sources, uses, and modification. The section also covers the chemical synthesis of glycosides.
The Cofactor section is a collection of articles covering the biosynthesis and enzymology of cofactors.
A section on enzymes and enzyme mechanisms covers a very broad range of different classes of enzyme, and discusses their
function, mechanisms, inhibition, modeling and discovery.
While the section on Modern Methods in Natural Products Chemistry necessarily overlaps with material in the CMSE module
on Analytic Chemistry and Chemometrics, it is distinct in so far it contains a series of articles on analytical, spectroscopic and
spectrometric, and crystallographic methods for use in the natural products field. Articles are also presented on bioinformatics,
bacterial protein over expression, metabolomics and directed evolution as essential tools for natural products research.
The section on food chemistry contains a series of articles on the chemistry, broadly speaking, of various classes of food and
drink, as well as others on the associated areas of flavor and fragrance, taste, and even cannabis.
We are enormously indebted to the editors, volume editors and authors who commissioned, contributed and edited the
collection of articles that currently make up the Natural Products, Chemical Biology, and Food Chemistry Module of CMSE, as
originally published in Comprehensive Natural Products I and II, and in Comprehensive Glycoscience.
Reference Module in Chemistry, Molecular Sciences and Chemical Engineering http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-409547-2.05393-2 1