The role of natural products for the discovery of new ant-infective agents, with emphasis in antifungal compounds

Abstract

Secondary metabolites from higher plants are of ongoing interest throughout the world, as they are important sources of new and promising drugs, and because they provide models or lead compounds for obtaining synthetic drugs. The complex and notable variety of structures from several organic classes, and the strategic methods of isolation, structural elucidation, synthesis, biological evaluation, quality control, etc., make this an exciting and challenging field for investigators and the pharmaceutical industry. In this chapter we describe some antifungal compounds isolated from natural sources and their mechanism of action.