Natural Products Isolation

As the editor points out in the preface to this volume literature on natural products has a tendency to focus on the exciting processes of structure elucidation. By comparison the hard toil of isolation and puri"cation is usually glossed over and it is often di$cult to repeat procedures on the basis of information supplied in publications. A book that focuses on the techniques of isolation and puri"cation is, therefore, always welcome. This multi-authored work endeavours to cover the whole range of options available in the laboratory. The "rst of the 15 chapters is entitled`How to approach the isolation of a natural producta. Given that in the preface the same author admits that every natural product isolation is di!erent then to try and present a rationale for others to follow is a considerable challenge. On the whole it is a useful contribution, but it does concern me that an inexperienced reader might take some of the advice and dictums as if they were written on tablets of stone. I would have been happier if this chapter had been entitled`A Guide to the isolationa. The remaining chapters are generally concerned with a review of a speci"c technique or process. The depth of the reviews vary considerably but most are of good quality and comprehensive with adequate "gures and diagrams. Among all the data, however, I would particularly point the reader to the contribution of Silva, Lee and Kinghorn entitled`Special problems with the extraction of plantsa. This is a gem with subheadings such as`pigmentsa, `tanninsa, `plasticizersa, `greasea } this really confronts the problems which make isolation such a di$cult process. This is a well presented and well-written book at a reasonable price. It is not a laboratory manual but it is a very useful source of ideas and information. It should be available in any laboratory where natural products isolation is undertaken.