Plant Metabolites: Methods, Applications and Prospects

Food security and the medicinal needs of billions of people around the world are pressing global issues, and the biodiversity and sustainable utilization of plants is of great significance in this context. Further, ethnobotanical studies are vital in the discovery of new drugs from indigenous medicinal plants, and plants with industrially important metabolites need to be cultivated to meet the growing market demand. In addition, the production of plant metabolites under in vitro conditions also has tremendous possibilities.

The totipotency of plant cells plays a valuable role in the sustainable utilization of plant resources through cell, tissue and organ culture. At the same time, production can be enhanced using productive cell lines, treatment with elicitors, changing nutritional parameters and metabolic engineering. This book provides state-of-the-art information on biodiversity, conservation, ethnobotany, various aspects of In vitro secondarymetabolite production, bioprospecting from various plant groups and drug discovery. It also discusses methods of extracting and characterizing drug leads from plant sources.

Chapter 1. Plant Metabolomics: Current status and prospects.- Chapter 2. Plant Metabolites: Methods for Isolation, Purification and Characterization.- Chapter 3. Molecular markers and their application in the identification of elite germplasm.- Chapter 4. Cell and protoplast culture for production of plant metabolites.- Chapter 5. Hairy Root Culture: Secondary Metabolite Production in a Biotechnological Perspective.- Chapter 6. Methods for enhanced production of metabolites under in vitro conditions.- Chapter 7. Invasive alien plants: a potential source of unique metabolites.- Chapter 8. Modified Plant Metabolites as Nutraceuticals.- Chapter 9. Ethnomedicine and role of plant metabolites.- Chapter 10. Herbal Cosmeceuticals.- Chapter 11. Plant secondary metabolites as nutraceuticals.- Chapter 12. Bioactive secondary metabolites from lichens.- Chapter 13. Algal Metabolites and Phyco-medicine.- Chapter 14. Bioactive Metabolites in Gymnosperms.- Chapter 15. Flavonoids for Therapeutic Applications.- Chapter 16. Plant-based pigments: novel extraction technologies and applications.- Chapter 17. Plant Lectins: Sugar Binding Properties and Biotechnological Applications.- Chapter 18. Plant metabolites as Immunomodulators.- Chapter 19. Polyphenols: an overview of food sources and associated bioactivities.- Chapter 20. Plant metabolites against enteropathogens.- Chapter 21. Molecular chaperones and their applications.- Chapter 22. Bioprospecting of ethno-medicinal plants for wound healing.

Dr. Sabu Abdulhameed is currently working as an Associate Professor at the Department of Biotechnology and Microbiology, Kannur University, India. He received his PhD from Cochin University of Science and Technology and joined the Biotechnology Division of CSIR-NIIST, Thiruvananthapuram as a Scientist Fellow. He has engaged in post-doctoral research work in microbial fermentation and biotransformation in the USA and France. His research interests are in microbial fermentation, therapeutic enzymes and the biotransformation of bioactive molecules. He has contributed extensively to fermentation and biotransformation in medicated wines and has three patents to his credit. Dr. Sabu has published five books and 70 research papers in international journals. He is a recipient of a postdoctoral fellowship from the Institute for Research and Development (IRD, France) and a Visiting Professorship from the Mexican Agency for International Cooperation and Development. He is also a memberof many academic bodies and expert panels, and serves on the editorial boards of numerous research journals.

Dr. Shiburaj Sugathan has a background in Plant Sciences and has been working in Microbial Bioprospecting since 1995. He is currently a Senior Scientist and Head of the Division of Microbiology at Jawaharlal Nehru Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram, India.  He has over 25 years of experience in the area of microbial biotechnology and has published several papers in reputed national and international journals, three books, several book chapters and one Indian patent. Dr. Shiburaj received his PhD degree from the University of Kerala and completed his postdoctoral studies at Madurai Kamaraj University, India and Dalhousie University, Canada. He is a recipient of a BOYCAST fellowship from the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India. Dr. Shiburaj is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Coahulia, Mexico. His current research interests include recombinant expression and scale up of industrial enzymes from Actinobacteria, and the characterization of antibiofilm molecules. 

Dr. Swapna Thacheril Sukumaran is a Professor at the Department of Botany, University of Kerala. She completed her PhD at the Department of Biotechnology, Cochin University of Science and Technology, India. Dr. Swapna has 25 years of teaching and research experience and has published nine books and over 100 research papers in journals and conference proceedings. Her research interests include in vitro secondary metabolite production, medicinal plant conservation and phytochemistry. Dr. Swapna is a recipient of research grants from the Department of Environment and Climate Change, Government of Kerala, Western Ghats Development Cell, Government of Kerala, University Grants Commission, Government of India and SERB, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. She is currently serving as a Member of the Kerala State Biodiversity Board.