Secondary controller metabolites

Some plant cells can be encouraged to grow in vitro under specific controlled conditions, which can be used to produce secondary plant metabolites at higher yields than those found in plants, but at a high cost. There are few examples where the technological difficulties and costs involved have led to commercialisation currently, but the valuable pharmaceutical alkaloid berberine, the quinnone shikonin and the terpenoid paclitaxel are all potential candidates for production by cell culture. 

Phytosterols (also called plant sterols) are secondary plant metabolites found in the cell membranes of all plants. Recent nutritional interest in plant sterols from the diet owes to their capacity to decrease serum cholesterol levels and hence aid in the prevention and control of... 

Smid, E. J. De Witte, Y. Vrees, O. Gorris, L. G. M. Use of secondary plant metabolites for the control of postharvest fungal diseases on flower bulbs, in Acta Hortic. (1994), 368 (International Symposium on Postharvest Treatment of Horticultural Crops. 1993, pp 523-530. 

Crinitol, (1), is a diterpene diol whose properties can in some ways be taken as representative of the current challenges in studying and finding uses for secondary plant metabolites. It is readily availability from a natural source and has a relatively uncomplicated structure despite this, its function in the plant is not fully clarified. As will be discussed below, crinitol shows a modest level of antimicrobial and other biological activity. We can already control many troublesome microorganisms that contaminate food and cosmetics with natural products, including plant secondary metabolites, that are currently available. Nevertheless, discovery... 

In the absence of a directing group, the cyclopropanation of cyclic olefins is generally under steric control. The stereochemical preference can be predicted from the ground state conformation of the molecule and often high levels of stereocontrol are observed. For example, Paquette and coworkers used a Simmons-Smith reaction in their total synthesis of the secondary marine metabolite (+)-acetoxycrenulide (30), whereby high P-face selectivity was observed. ... 

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