Drug discovery strategies for both pharmaceutical and agrochemical applications are at a stage of rapid development. More than 30 % of sales of drugs for human consumption worldwide are of plant origin. This unique book covers the present status and future potential of natural products in drug discovery. It provides the reader with recent information regarding the impact on drug discovery, development and strategies, technical and automation aspects, and methods based on biochemistry as well as molecular biology, highlighting compounds from natural sources. Special emphasis is placed on the various strategies to gain access to natural compounds and combinatorial approaches by making use of both synthetic and biological methods. Because the renewed interest in the use of natural sources in drug discovery is an important supplement to combinatorial and parallel synthesis approaches, this book is timely and will have a great scientific impact.
