Phytochemistry is in the strict sense of the word the study of phytochemicals. These are chemicals derived from plants. In a narrower sense the terms are often used to describe the large number of secondary metabolic compounds found in plants. Many of these are known to provide protection against insect attacks and plant diseases. They also exhibit a number of protective functions for human consumers. Phytochemicals are sometimes referred to as phytonutrients; these terms are often used interchangeably. ... Divisions Green algae Chlorophyta Charophyta Land plants (embryophytes) Non-vascular plants (bryophytes) Marchantiophyta—liverworts Anthocerotophyta—hornworts Bryophyta—mosses Vascular plants (tracheophytes) †Rhyniophyta—rhyniophytes †Zosterophyllophyta—zosterophylls Lycopodiophyta—clubmosses †Trimerophytophyta—trimerophytes Pteridophyta—ferns and horsetails Seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta—seed ferns Pinophyta—conifers Cycadophyta—cycads Ginkgophyta—ginkgo Gnetophyta—gnetae Magnoliophyta—flowering plants... Santorio Santorio (1561-1636) in his steelyard balance, from Ars de statica medecina, first published 1614 Metabolism (from μεταβολισμος(metavallo), the Greek word for change), in the most general sense, is the ingestion and breakdown of complex compounds, coupled... {{Taxobox | color = pink | name = Insects | fossil_range = Carboniferous - Recent | image = European honey bee extracts nectar. ... Phytopathology or Plant Pathology is the science of diagnosing and managing plant diseases. ...

Techniques commonly using in the field of phytochemistry are extraction, isolation and structural elucidation (MS,1Dand 2D NMR) of natural products, as well as various chromatography techniques (MPLC, HPLC, LC-MS). In chemistry, liquid-liquid extraction is a useful method to separate components (compounds) of a mixture. ... Isolation can refer to: Isolated point in topology (mathematics) Isolation (psychology), psychological phenomenon. ... -1... Pictured is a sophisticated gas chromatography system. ...

Phytochemistry is widely used in the field of Chinese medicine especially in the field of herbal medicine. Traditional Chinese medicine shop in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. ... The term Herbalism refers to folk and traditional medicinal practice based on the use of plants and plant extracts. ...

Phytochemical technique mainly applies to the quality control of Chinese medicine or herbal medicine of various chemical components, such as saponins, alkaloids, volatile oils, flavonoids and anthraquinones. In the development of rapid and reproducible analytical techniques, the combination of HPLC with different detectors, such as diode array detector (DAD), refractive index detector (RID), evaporative light scattering detector (ELSD) and mass spectrometric detector (MSD), has been widely developed. Saponins are a class of glucosides found in plants. ... An alkaloid is a nitrogenous organic molecule that has a pharmacological effect on humans and other animals. ... An essential oil is any concentrated, hydrophobic liquid containing volatile aroma compounds from plants. ... Flavonoids are a group of chemical compounds naturally found in certain fruits, vegetables, teas, wines, nuts, seeds, and roots. ... Anthraquinone (9,10-dioxoanthracene) is an aromatic organic compound. ... Chromatography is a family of analytical chemistry techniques for the separation of mixtures. ...

In most cases, biologically active compounds in Chinese medicine or herbal medicine have not been determined. Therefore, it is important to use the phytochemical methods to screen and analyze bioactive components, not only for the quality control of crude drugs, but also for the elucidation of their therapeutic mechanisms. Modern pharmacological studies indicate that binding to receptors or ion channels on cell membrane is the first step of some drug actions. A new method in phytochemistry; biochromatography, has been developed. This method combines human red cell membrane extraction and high performance liquid chromatography to screen potential active components in Chinese medicine. Many drugs are provided in tablet form. ... Red Teams or Red Cells are U.S. government parlance for teams or units designed to test the effectiveness of U.S. tactics or personnel. ...

References