Natural Products as Antiviral Agents

This book summarizes state-of-the-art antiviral drug design and discovery approaches starting from natural products to de novo design, and provides a timely update on recently approved antiviral drugs and compounds in advanced clinical development. Special attention is paid to viral infections with a high impact on the world population or highly relevant from the public health perspective (HIV, hepatitis C, influenza virus, etc.).

Documenting the latest research in the field of different pathogenic organisms, this book presents the current scenario about promising antimicrobials in the following areas: Part I. Plants as source of antibacterials, Part II. Naturally occurring antifungal natural products, Part III. Antiparasitic natural products, Part IV. Antiviral natural products. Renowned scientists from the globe have been selected as authors to contribute chapters.

Natural products are a marvel of evolution. Plants are chemical factories and have produced a vast number of highly diverse and interesting natural substances with their extraordinary properties, which we humans have been using for centuries to relieve and cure diseases. At the latest since the discovery of penicillin, natural substances have become an important source of medicines, but we know only very few of the presumably many millions that are still waiting to be discovered. Important antibiotics, immunosuppressants, anticancer agents, hormones, and antiviral agents are among the natural products. But do natural products still matter in the age of biotechnology and genetic engineering? Yes, more than ever, because medicinal chemists draw creative inspiration for their syntheses from nature to develop the next blockbuster in medicine.

Natural products are a marvel of evolution. Plants are chemical factories and have produced a vast number of highly diverse and interesting natural substances with their extraordinary properties, which we humans have been using for centuries to relieve and cure diseases. At the latest since the discovery of penicillin, natural substances have become an important source of medicines, but we know only very few of the presumably many millions that are still waiting to be discovered. Important antibiotics, immunosuppressants, anticancer agents, hormones, and antiviral agents are among the natural products. But do natural products still matter in the age of biotechnology and genetic engineering? Yes, more than ever, because medicinal chemists draw creative inspiration for their syntheses from nature to develop the next blockbuster in medicine.

This book addresses chemical and biological aspects related to sesquiterpene lactones (STLs). Experts in different fields have been invited to contribute on this class of compound's chemistry, isolation and identification, biological activities (antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antitrypanosomal, antileishmanial,antiplasmodial, antiproliferative and antiinflammatory), synthesis, biosynthesis, derivatization and QSAR analysis. Taxonomic and chemotaxonomic aspects related to the Asteraceae family are also contributed.