Isolation and Identification of Active Components from Natural Products

식의약소재 천연자원으로부터 유효성분 규명 연구

Natural products have been used as drugs and cosmetics due to their bioactivity and their biochemical diversity. Natural products usually refer to secondary metabolites produced by various living organisms including marine animals, insects, microbes, amphibians, and plants. These secondary metabolites, which usually have molecular weights less than 2,000 amu, are unnecessary for survival, development, growth, and reproduction but play major roles in plant defense systems against other species. These secondary metabolites such as lignans, flavonoids, monoterpenes, and phenylethanoid glycosides showed various biological activities like anti-oxidant behavior, anti-cancer properties, neuroprotective properties, and so forth. Thus, isolation and elucidation of secondary metabolites from living organisms is of great significance to human life.