edited by Benny K-H Tan (National University of Singapore, Singapore) , Boon-Huat Bay (National University of Singapore, Singapore) , & Yi-Zhun Zhu (National University of Singapore, Singapore)

There is continuing interest in natural products as sources of potentially new and exciting chemical compounds. This book brings together the knowledge, perspectives and research findings of a varied group of scientists on a wide range of topics, from microarrays, genetics and bioinformatics to yeast-based technologies and enzyme studies. Scientists and clinicians in life science research will find useful information on new research techniques and tools. For the agriculturist, there is interesting information on the potential and problems of natural-based pesticides. The cancer researcher will find several plant sources with potential anti-cancer and immunomodulating compounds, as well as a report on two new modalities in cancer therapy — photosensitization with hypericin and immunotherapy. Latest developments of Chinese herbal extracts reported in this book may offer a new alternative therapy in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. In addition, the later chapters awaken the would-be entrepreneur to the opportunities and challenges of research and development in the natural product industry, with the concluding chapter providing helpful insights into Intellectual Property Law.

• Plants in Drug Discovery — Creating a New Vision (G A Cordell)
• Structural Studies of Drug Metabolising Enzymes and the Relevance to Natural Product Development (R Delgoda)
• Bioinformatics — Species Diversity Databases: Tools for Facilitating Natural Product Research (S Kumar & V Gupta)
• Limitations of Natural Pesticides: A Challenge to Scientists (A Mansingh)
• Effect of Crude Papaya Latex on Rats' Pregnancy (A Adebiyi & P G Adaikan)
• The Antioxidant and Free Radical Scavenging Effects of Sesamin (T Moritani)
• Cancer Diagnosis Using the Novel Photosensitizer, Hypericin (M Olivo)
• The Effects of Saponin from Sea Cucumber (Holothuria atra Jaeger) on CEM-SS T-Lymphoblastic Cells (H-L Hing et al.)
• Turmeric and Colon Cancer (D Thiyagarajan et al.)
• Modulation of Hypericin-Based Phototoxicity in Nasopharyngeal Cancer (H-Y Du et al.)
• Research and Development of Natural Products in Developing Countries: Need for Venture Capital (V H Rhone)
• Protection of Ideas, Inventions, Trade Marks, Copyrights and Products under the Intellectual Property Law (C S-K Tay)
• and other papers