Book Reviews

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Recent Advances in the Biochemistry of Plant Lipids

Ed. by J. L. Harwood and P. J. Quinn, Portland Press, London, 2000, 985 pp., price £75, ISBN 1-85578-146-8 Search PubMedPlant lipids are a diverse group of natural products that include compounds synthesized by the fatty acid and isoprenoid pathways. Harwood and Quinn have recently edited a book on this class of natural products. The book is a collection of 150 chapters divided into 24 sections that cover a broad range of topics discussed at the 14^th International Symposium on Plant Lipids held at Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK, from July 23–28, 2000. The book, sponsored by the Biochemical Society of England, is divided into 7 main areas: Part 1 contains a brief section on diversity and analysis of fatty acids and glycerolipids, Part 2 examines various aspects of fatty acid biosynthesis and catabolism, including a detailed look at recent findings by several research groups related to the bioengineering of enzymes and pathways that control the production and processing of fatty acids. Part 3 is much like Part 2, with reviews on complex biosynthesis and catabolism. Part 4 is a short section covering sterols and isoprenoids. The chapter by H. K. Lichtenthaler reviewing recent progress on the non-mevalonate isoprenoid biosynthesis pathway to higher terpenes is significant. This pathway, rather than the classical acetate–mevalonate pathway, has been found to operate in plants as well as pathogenic microorganisms giving rise to sterols. Thus, opportunities in rational drug design for infectious diseases can now be considered. Part 5 focuses on an emerging science in plant biochemistry concerned with lipids, volatile compounds and cell signalling. Two main classes of signalling pathways are scrutinized, the phospholipase- and oxylipins-mediated pathways. The oxylipins are metabolites of plant lipoxygenases which may be formed from the conversion of fatty acid hydroperoxides. An important oxylipin metabolite involved with several studies discussed in the book is jasmonic acid. This newly recognized phytohormone can act as a signal molecule to trigger plant responses, most notably defense responses. Part 6 surveys the effect of changing environment or plant management on lipid biosynthesis and composition in plants. Part 7 concentrates on the biotechnological aspects of lipids. The final set of chapters presents ongoing developments mainly from the CSIRO Plant Industry at Canberra and Institute of Biological Chemistry at Washington State University directed towards the goal of creating new sources of improved edible and industrial oils in transgenic oilseed crops. Each chapter is a brief overview of recent research findings of the participant at the meeting with minimal experimental detail given in the chapters and no peer review of the research. There is a subject but no author index. The figures and tables are of good quality. I recommend this book to the specialist but it is not useful as a classroom text.

W. David Nes
Texas Tech University, USA

Chemical Dictionary of Economic Plants

Jeffrey B. Harborne and Herbert Baxter, Wiley, Chichester, 2001, xvii + 217 pp., price £150, ISBN 0-471-49226-4 Search PubMedSome dictionaries are purely for reference and others are for reading. This book falls into the latter class. It is full of interesting information about plants, their common uses and constituents. It is written for a wide readership rather than just for a specialist natural product chemist. The plants are grouped in terms of their economic uses with sections on medicinal plants, food plants, essential oils, oils and fats, dyestuffs, tannins, plant biocides, hallucinogenics, gums and rubbers, waxes and resins and plant fibres. Although it might have been difficult to draw the borderline, an interesting section might have been on ornamental plants. In each section the plants are listed alphabetically by their common name. There are a total of 753 entries of about 8–10 lines each. In each entry there is information on some alternative names, the botanical name, the biological activity and the major chemical constituents together with a general comment on the use of the plant. The book is clearly presented and it is well indexed. There is a list of books which have been consulted in drawing up this dictionary.

Inevitably the book is selective and there are some omissions. For example the Chinese antimalarial plant product Qinghaosu (Artemisia annua) and the South American sweetener Stevia rebaudiana are not listed. As a natural product chemist I would have appreciated two additional pieces of information. The first would be a few key references which would lead me to the isolation and structure elucidation of the major constituent of each plant. The second is an indication of which economic, and hence commercially available, plants are particularly good sources of specific natural products. When I do the shopping, I often wonder whether I should be extracting the vegetables or cooking them. This dictionary just whets my appetite. I can recommend this book to those who are interested in the constituents of economic plants as one to dip into for a wealth of information.

James R. Hanson
University of Sussex, UK

Solid Support Oligosaccharide Synthesis and Combinatorial Carbohydrate Libraries

Ed. Peter H. Seeberger, Wiley-Interscience, New York, xii + 308 pp., price £71.50, ISBN 0-471-37828-3 Search PubMedOligosaccharides are the last type of biopolymer that is still challenging to synthesise. While oligonucleotides and peptides are routinely made in non-specialist laboratories using solid phase synthesis machines, a similar method for oligosaccharide synthesis is lacking. In the last decade many laboratories have taken on the task to try to solve the difficulties associated with solid phase oligosaccharide synthesis and exciting progress has been made. The book, edited by Peter Seeberger, gives an overview of the progress that has been made in solid phase oligosaccharide synthesis over the last 10 years, and also covers related combinatorial chemistry techniques.

The book is divided into 14 chapters written by authors from leading laboratories engaged in solid phase synthesis of carbohydrates or related topics. In general each chapter describes a methodology developed by the author's laboratory, and in fact gives quite a good impression of the state of the field. The editor himself has together with collaborators contributed three chapters: a chapter about solid phase oligosaccharide synthesis using glycosyl phosphate donors, a chapter about the special analysis techniques that are used in solid phase synthesis (a useful inclusion indeed for newcomers in the field), and a chapter about the history of solid phase oligosaccharide synthesis. The latter gives a fairly faithful account of the history of the field from its absolute beginning in 1971 until 1991.

The book further contains a series of chapters that reports on the use of different glycosylation methods in solid phase synthesis. Thus Cirillo and Danishefsky report on solid phase oligosaccharide synthesis using glycals, Taylor writes about sulfoxide based glycosylations, Knerr and Schmidt discuss the use of glycosyl trichloroacetimidates in solid phase oligosaccharide synthesis, and Wittmann reports on the similar use of thioglycosides and pentenyl glycosides. Ito and Ando report on β-mannoside synthesis on the solid phase using intramolecular glycosylation. A number of chapters deal with special oligosaccharide synthesis techniques that can be considered related to solid phase synthesis: Krepinsky and Douglas describe polyethylene glycol supported solution phase synthesis of oligosaccharides, Boons and Zhu write about “two-direction” glycosylations, Simanek and Wong report on one-pot glycosylation procedures in solution and Kanie and Hindsgaul on the synthesis of oligosaccharide libraries using random glycosylation in solution. Finally there are two chapters on glycopeptide synthesis: one by Kunz and Bezay and another by St. Hilaire, Halkes and Meldal.

Overall the book is to be recommended to those who wish to enter the field, as it provides a fast access to a collection of important developments. It also gives a splendid overview over the state of the art of the field. Perhaps the only drawback is that it, like many other multiauthor books, tends to give an uncomprehensive coverage of the field because each author gives an account of his own work only including the work of direct competitors.

Mikael Bols
Aarhus University, Denmark

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