The diverse structures, biosyntheses and biological activities of fungal metabolites
have attracted chemists for many years. This book is an introduction to
the chemistry of fungal metabolites. The aim is to illustrate, within the context
of fungal metabolites, the historical progression from chemical to spectroscopic
methods of structure elucidation, the development in biosynthetic studies from
establishing sequences and mechanisms to chemical enzymology and genetics
and the increasing understanding of the biological roles of natural products.
Fungi occupy an important place in the natural world. As non-photosynthetic
organisms they obtain their nutrients from the degradation of organic material.
They use many of their secondary metabolites to secure a place in a competitive
natural environment and to protect themselves from predation.
Fungi are ubiquitous and their activities affect many aspects of our daily
lives, whether it be as sources of pharmaceuticals and food or as spoilage organisms
and the causes of diseases in plants and man. The chemistry of the
fungi involved in these activities has been the subject of considerable study,
particularly over the last 50 years. Although their ramifications can be large, as
in the spread of plant diseases, the quantities of metabolites that could be
isolated precluded much chemical work until the advent of spectroscopic
methods. Whereas many natural products derived from plants were isolated
before the 1960s on a scale that permitted extensive chemical degradation this
was rarely the case for fungal metabolites. However, whenever it was possible,
interesting chemistry was discovered.
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