Book Reviews

This book covers many aspects related to the stilbenoids: a group of natural products that occur in bryophytes, pteridophytes, gymnosperms and angiosperms. The first part of the book deals with their distribution in different taxa of the plant kingdom. Long tables with plant species and isolated stilbenoids are given. Their chemistry is discussed and structural formulae (more than 300) are given in an appendix. The book continues with the biosynthesis and chemical synthesis. Their biosynthetic pathway is linked to that of the flavonoids. Accordingly, stilbenoids originate from the shikimic acid pathway, and are linked with three acetate units. Methods for the analysis and identification of this class of compounds are presented, among others thin-layer chromatography (TLC), gas chromatography (GC), high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), mass spectrometry (MS) and X-ray crystallography.