Secondary Metabolites from Plants: The Thin Border Between Beneficent and Harmful

Abstract

The main family of phytochemical compounds derived from naturally synthesised secondary metabolites are alkaloids, terpenoids and phenolics. Recently, these compounds known also as novel chemical entities (NCE) have been used as drug precursors or templates for synthetic moieties. Also, their potential for pharmacological applications has been as well extensively investigated. However, in recent years, a serious problem worldwide has become the use of illegal drugs, where to potential of some secondary metabolites to act as bio- or a psychoactive component is often refined. Considering that, forensic analysis of secondary metabolites from plants is of the utmost importance. Moreover, great effort has been given to developing testing strategies capable of identifying and quantifying secondary metabolites from various precursors over the past few years. Chromatography is a powerful instrumental technique in the analyses of selected NCE and seems entirely to fulfill the requirements of various laboratories all over the world.