Progress in the Chemistry of Organic Natural Products

This volume describes highly diverse subjects: The first chapter covers the extensive experiences of a team that developed microbial biodiscovery methodology, which they applied to study compounds produced by Australian marine and terrestrial fungi and bacteria. Chapter 2 explores marine biodiscovery of the North-eastern Atlantic off the coast of Ireland as a model for best practice in research. The third chapter investigates Brazilian Chemical Ecology and examples of insect–plant communication studies that are mediated by natural products demonstrate the beautiful interconnectedness of species in a biome. Our fourth chapter comprises the advances in the science of the sesquiterpene quinone perezone, which was the first natural product isolated in crystalline form in the New World in 1852. The last two chapters are from a Vietnamese group and follow the phytochemistry, pharmacology, and ethnomedical uses of the genus Xanthium, which produces interesting sulfur and nitrogen containing natural products, and finally the genus Desmos is discussed, where an overview of its constituent natural products and their in vitro pharmacological potential is described.