Chemical Constituents of Bryophytes, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2013 Bio- and Chemical Diversity, Biological Activity, and Chemosystematics Progress in the Chemistry of Organic Natural Products Series, Vol. 95

For some 50 years, Professor Asakawa and his group have focused their research on the chemical constituents of bryophytes and have found that these plants contain large numbers of secondary metabolites, such as terpenoids, acetogenins, and aromatic compounds representative of many new skeletons, which exhibit interesting biological activities. Individual terpenoids, when found as constituents of both a bryophyte and a higher plant, tend to occur in different enantiomeric forms. Professor Asakawa has covered the literature on bryophytes in two earlier volumes of Progress in the Chemistry of Organic Natural Products, namely, Volumes 42 (1982) and 65 (1995). Since the publication of the latter volume, a great deal of new information has appeared on bryophytes. One example is that known sex pheromones of algae have been discovered in two liverworts, indicating that some members of the latter taxonomic group might originate from brown algae. From information provided in this volume, it is suggested that two orders of the Marchantiophyta should be combined.

1 Introduction.- 2 Biodiversity of Bryophytes.- 3 Chemical Diversity of Bryophytes.- 4 Chemical Constituents of the Marchantiophyta.- 5 Chemical Constituents of Bryophyta.- 6 Chemical Constituents of Anthocerotophyta.- 7 Biologically Active Compounds of the Marchantiophyta and Bryophyta.- 8 Chemosystematics of the Marchantiophyta.- 9 Chemical Relationships Between Algae, Bryophytes, and Pteridophytes.

Yoshinori Asakawa

Yoshinori Asakawa obtained his first degree in biology at Tokushima University, and then went to graduate school at Hiroshima University in 1964 to study organic chemistry. He has been actively involved in bryophyte research since the early 1970s, from the time when he was a postdoctoral with Professor Guy Ourisson at the Institut de Chimie, Université Louis-Pasteur, Strasbourg, France. He has studied not only bryophyte constituents and their biosynthesis but also bioactive secondary metabolites of pteridophytes, inedible mushrooms, and aromatic and medicinal plants, as well as the biotransformation of secondary metabolites by fungi and mammals, and oxidation reactions of organic peracids.  He has authored and co-authored more than 550 original papers, 24 reviews, and 27 books and monographs. For his outstanding research, Prof. Asakawa was awarded the first Hedwig Medal from the International Association of Bryologists, the Phytochemistry Prize and Certification from Elsevier, the International Symposium on Essential Oils Award, the Jack Cannon International Gold Medal, the Japanese Society of Pharmacognosy Award, and the Tokushima Newspaper Award. He has been Editor of Phytomedicine and Spectroscopy, and a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of numerous scientific journals, including Phytochemistry, PhytochemistryLetters, PlantaMedica, Flavor and Fragrance Journal, Fitoterapia, Natural ProductCommunications, Natural Product Research, Malaysian Journal of Sciences, Current Chemical Biology, Scientia Pharmaceutica, and Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine, among others. He has served twice as Dean of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Tokushima Bunri University, and is currently Director of the Institute of Pharmacognosy (1986–present). Prof. Asakawa has been President of thePhytochemical Soc