Chapter 10
Secondary Metabolites from Plant
Sources
Chandi Charan Kandar
Abstract A Plant can be considered as a storehouse of a huge number of chemicals
biosynthesized by many metabolic pathways like photosynthesis, glycolysis, Kreb’s
cycle, shikimic acid pathway, mevalonic acid pathway, etc. Primary metabolites
include sugars, citric acid, Kreb's cycle intermediates, amino acids, protein, nucleic
acid, and polysaccharides. Primary metabolites are identical in all living plant cells
and they carry out basic life activities like growth, cell division, storage, respiration,
and reproduction. On the other hand, the secondary plant metabolites, well-known
as phytoconstituents are derived from primary metabolites by the influence of
various surroundings stress like light, temperature, and different metals with the
help of several metabolic pathways. The formation of secondary metabolites is very
much specific to the plant family concern. By using similar primary metabolites,
plants of various families produce a large number of different secondary metabolites
having various pharmaceutical values. Generally, secondary metabolites of the
plant have a great role to defense from herbivorous and pathogens, attract other
animals and protect from UV radiation. Moreover, secondary metabolites show a
lot of importance in the pharmaceutical application as medicines used for the
treatment of various diseases in the folklore medicine as well as traditional medicine. They are also used as flavors in pharmaceutical ingredients, perfumes in
pharmaceutical and perfumery industry, insecticides, dyes, polymers used for the
preparation new drug delivery systems and therefore, they have a great value to
economic concern.
Keywords Secondary metabolites Á Biosynthesis Á Phenolic compounds Á
Alkaloids Á Glycosides Á Terpenes Á Saponins Á Tannins
C. C. Kandar (&)
Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Institute of Pharmacy, Government of West
Bengal, Jalpaiguri, West Bengal 735 101, India
e-mail: cckandar@rediffmail.com
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
D. Pal and A. K. Nayak (eds.), Bioactive Natural Products
for Pharmaceutical Applications, Advanced Structured Materials 140,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54027-2_10
329
Secondary Metabolites from Plant
Sources
Chandi Charan Kandar
Abstract A Plant can be considered as a storehouse of a huge number of chemicals
biosynthesized by many metabolic pathways like photosynthesis, glycolysis, Kreb’s
cycle, shikimic acid pathway, mevalonic acid pathway, etc. Primary metabolites
include sugars, citric acid, Kreb's cycle intermediates, amino acids, protein, nucleic
acid, and polysaccharides. Primary metabolites are identical in all living plant cells
and they carry out basic life activities like growth, cell division, storage, respiration,
and reproduction. On the other hand, the secondary plant metabolites, well-known
as phytoconstituents are derived from primary metabolites by the influence of
various surroundings stress like light, temperature, and different metals with the
help of several metabolic pathways. The formation of secondary metabolites is very
much specific to the plant family concern. By using similar primary metabolites,
plants of various families produce a large number of different secondary metabolites
having various pharmaceutical values. Generally, secondary metabolites of the
plant have a great role to defense from herbivorous and pathogens, attract other
animals and protect from UV radiation. Moreover, secondary metabolites show a
lot of importance in the pharmaceutical application as medicines used for the
treatment of various diseases in the folklore medicine as well as traditional medicine. They are also used as flavors in pharmaceutical ingredients, perfumes in
pharmaceutical and perfumery industry, insecticides, dyes, polymers used for the
preparation new drug delivery systems and therefore, they have a great value to
economic concern.
Keywords Secondary metabolites Á Biosynthesis Á Phenolic compounds Á
Alkaloids Á Glycosides Á Terpenes Á Saponins Á Tannins
C. C. Kandar (&)
Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Institute of Pharmacy, Government of West
Bengal, Jalpaiguri, West Bengal 735 101, India
e-mail: cckandar@rediffmail.com
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
D. Pal and A. K. Nayak (eds.), Bioactive Natural Products
for Pharmaceutical Applications, Advanced Structured Materials 140,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54027-2_10
329