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Dear John Anyam

Thank you to share your question with me , I hope I can help you but it is not my fields

Regards

Saeed

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Dear John Anyam

It is very well said that a lot of research have been conducted in discovery of new phytoconstituents. But a lot of plants are there where research is needed to isolate the active constituents. A lot of new entities and their derivatives are their which need purification because only one plant extract contains lots of compounds. 

Dear John Anyam

phytochemical test is unique and complex, researchers would have to be careful in making the isolation and purification of these compounds. I never did purification and isolation using column chromatography on seaweed and managed to isolate four types of test compound and I was so determined further by the NMR structure of the compound is B sitosterol and oleic acid. but actually there are many compounds that did not work I have identified as being in a very small amount and unstable.

Can biological active phytochemicals be 'unstable' (e.g. available during brief periods of time in the context of a biological interaction) therefore not accessible in laboratory conditions?

@[Yadu Nandan Dey] ·It is true that one plant extract contains lots of compounds but it is also true that the heyday of novel compound isolation was in the 60s and 70s. Today "novel compound isolations" are depressingly far less common. Kindly consider this very important review attached:

Data A Historical Overview of Natural Products in Drug Discovery

@Marcel M. Lambrechts. Which begs the question: how could we isolate and characterize the inaccessible and unstable?

Do we ever consider the fact that many of the activities of a plant extract are actually derivable from the sum of the effects of the various constituents; therefore, attempts at separation leads to loss of activity. Recently, researchers are directing more effort at nutraceutical potentials of plants, which entails looking at the medicinal value of the complete plant.

 Dear John Anyam

I  completely agree with Dr Yedunandan's Answer, although there has been substantial research has been carried out regarding the isolation and characterization of a large number of phytoconstituents, still, there are the number of compounds are yet to come !

There is another aspect where the phytochemists can work is the synergistic and antagonistic phtoconstituents in the plant, as there has been number of compounds which are responsible for the synergistic and antogonistic effect apart from the active constituents which are somehow responsible for the believe that the plant derived drugs have lesser adverse effect than isolate compounds. In my openion there is a need for the standardization of the extract as well as the metabolism pathway for the secondary metabolites. Phytochemical research can also be done in the field to enhance the yeild the active ingreedient from the plant either bu genetic pathways wich is more towards biotechnology and by enzymatic process. 

Thanks !      

The science continues to progress. It’s important to how ignite spark thoughts.

I think that’s an open area to find out more and we are especially under the pressure of climate change, and certainly these plants will respond to this change one way or more.

Thank you all for your valuable responses/suggestions. I have come away from this discussion with the following ideas:

1. that we need to develop new methods for isolating very unstable bioactive phytochemicals.

2. that the pressure of climate change on plants and how plants respond to this change will open up new areas for phytochemical research

3. that we need to study metabolic/biosynthetic pathways in order to maximize the yield bioactive phytochemicals

4. that new applications are being discovered everyday for even "old compounds".

Thanks once again.