Isolation of medicinally important constituents from rare and exotic medicinal plants

Abstract Various exotic medicinal plants are found to exhibit anticancer, cell signaling, antiviral, antioxidant, antispasmodics, immunomodulatory, and antiinflammatory properties. The bioactive compounds such as flavanoids, alkaloids, steroids, terpenoids, and saponins as well as useful plant drugs including vinblastine, vincristine, taxol, podophyllotoxin, camptothecin, digitoxigenin, gitoxigenin, digoxigenin, tubocurarine, morphine, codeine, aspirin, atropine, pilocarpine, capscicine, allicin, curcumin, and artemesinin have been isolated from these plants. In this chapter, we have described some natural products, their synthesis, pharmaceutical details, and isolation, that is, extraction from Adonis vernalis , Aesculus hippocastanum , Fraxinus rhynchophylla , Atropa belladonna , Berberis vulgaris , Hydrastis Canadensis , and Taxus brevifolia plants.