Chapter 2
An Introduction to Bioactive Natural
Products and General Applications
Tijjani Ahmadu and Khairulmazmi Ahmad
Abstract Nature has been a powerful source of potential medicinal plants with
natural bioactive products for a long time period. The plants are known to contain
quantum of various active principles of therapeutic value and possess biological
activity against a number of diseases. These plants synthesized phytochemicals,
serving as their natural defence system and also used in medicine, dye colours,
fragrant, pharmaceutical, agrochemicals and flavouring. They also possess
antimicrobial properties that are correlated with their ability to manufacture several
secondary metabolites with antimicrobial properties like phenols, phenolic acids,
flavonoids, alkanoids, tannins, quinones, coumarins, saponins, terpenoids, triterpenoids, glycosides and organic acids. Today, an increasing research interest in the
herbal medicine field has been gaining popularity in both developed and developing
countries. The bioactive compounds are provided by chemical diversity and natural
plant products as purified compounds or as plant crude extracts. The extracts
(crude) existed as a combination of different bioactive phytocompounds combined
with various polarities and their partition still remains a challenge in the process of
identification and characterization. Since bioactive natural products have diverse
range of uses, the present book chapter constitutes a review on their distribution and
geographical sources, phytochemistry, delivery technology, medicinal properties
and their general potential applications in agricultural plant protection and pharmaceutical field.
T. Ahmadu (&) Á K. Ahmad
Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University Putra Malaysia, 43400
UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
e-mail: tijjaniahmadu72@gmail.com
K. Ahmad
e-mail: tijjaniahmadu72@gmail.com
T. Ahmadu
Department of Crop Production, Faculty of Agriculture and Agricultural Technology,
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Bauchi State P. M. B 0248, Nigeria
K. Ahmad
Institute of Plantation Studies, University Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor
Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
© 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_2
41
An Introduction to Bioactive Natural
Products and General Applications
Tijjani Ahmadu and Khairulmazmi Ahmad
Abstract Nature has been a powerful source of potential medicinal plants with
natural bioactive products for a long time period. The plants are known to contain
quantum of various active principles of therapeutic value and possess biological
activity against a number of diseases. These plants synthesized phytochemicals,
serving as their natural defence system and also used in medicine, dye colours,
fragrant, pharmaceutical, agrochemicals and flavouring. They also possess
antimicrobial properties that are correlated with their ability to manufacture several
secondary metabolites with antimicrobial properties like phenols, phenolic acids,
flavonoids, alkanoids, tannins, quinones, coumarins, saponins, terpenoids, triterpenoids, glycosides and organic acids. Today, an increasing research interest in the
herbal medicine field has been gaining popularity in both developed and developing
countries. The bioactive compounds are provided by chemical diversity and natural
plant products as purified compounds or as plant crude extracts. The extracts
(crude) existed as a combination of different bioactive phytocompounds combined
with various polarities and their partition still remains a challenge in the process of
identification and characterization. Since bioactive natural products have diverse
range of uses, the present book chapter constitutes a review on their distribution and
geographical sources, phytochemistry, delivery technology, medicinal properties
and their general potential applications in agricultural plant protection and pharmaceutical field.
T. Ahmadu (&) Á K. Ahmad
Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University Putra Malaysia, 43400
UPM Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
e-mail: tijjaniahmadu72@gmail.com
K. Ahmad
e-mail: tijjaniahmadu72@gmail.com
T. Ahmadu
Department of Crop Production, Faculty of Agriculture and Agricultural Technology,
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi, Bauchi State P. M. B 0248, Nigeria
K. Ahmad
Institute of Plantation Studies, University Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor
Darul Ehsan, Malaysia
© 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_2
41