Flora by Federico Scarchilli

Plants are among the main suppliers of medicinal substances and should be considered as the producers and dynamic containers of chemical substances. In their evolution they have developed innumerable secondary metabolites that perform various ecological functions for the plant, such as repellence, defence from herbivores, fighting against other plant species for resource control, defence from parasites and attraction to pollinators. These secondary metabolites have also shown important pharmacological activities in humans, which constitute the active ingredients or the main components on which the curative action of a drug depends; in fact, 40 percent of monomolecular drugs derive from plant species. This series highlights the important role of pharmacognosy in modern biology.