Some phytochemical aspects of medicinal plant research

Various aspects of medicinal plant research, i.e. collection of data, screening for biological activity and isolation and identification of active compounds are briefly discussed with special reference to phytochemical aspects. Based upon this some topics for further methodological research are presented. A strategy for the isolation of pure compounds is outlined. The spectroscopic methods for the identification and structure elucidation of isolated natural products are briefly discussed. The role of each of these methods is a general strategy for product identification and structure elucidation is described.