Classification, chemical chemotaxonomy

Hegnauer published a chapter entitled Chemical Evidence for the Classification of Some Plant Taxa, one section of which he devoted to the plants of the Papaveraceae family. According to him, the classification of this family is still controversial. The chemistry of the constituents suggests that the family Papaveraceae is out of place in the order Rhoeadales. Hegnauer assumes that the chemistry and the serology will help to resolve this problem also in the species and genera of this family (831). The chemotaxonomy of the plants Papaveraceae, Ranunculaceae, and Berberi-daceae was also studied by Tetenyi and Vagujfalvi (832). 

The diversity of chemical compounds has been used directly for centuries for direct classification. Initially, these classifications grouped organisms by their use or their danger to humans and said nothing of phylogenetic or evolutionary relationships [WIN 99]. The use of secondary metabolites as taxonomic characteristics developed with the advance of chromatography, giving birth to a research discipline named chemotaxonomy. To undertake taxonomy from secondary metabolites also poses difficulties secondary... 

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