The publication of this volume marks the 40th
anniversary of Recent
Advances in Phytochemistry. The series (> 13,000 cumulative pages) has been
essentially a history of the origins of Phytochemistry - where we have been and
where we are, as well as where we appear to be going. Early volumes were entitled
simply "Recent Advances in Phytochemistry" with specific titles appearing later in
the series as our symposia became increasingly focused on annual topics. A cursory
look at the list of titles in the series (see accompanying) will demonstrate that while
we have occasionally drifted into broader areas, such as chemical ecology, medicinal
chemistry, and increasingly molecular biology, we have remained grounded with our
roots in natural products or secondary metabolism. With the "omics" revolution of
the 1990s, the phytochemical pioneers were slowly but inexorably supplanted by
molecular biologists and geneticists able to answer more definitively the metabolic,
evolutionary, and the functional ecological questions which have often absorbed us.
The distinctions between secondary and primary chemistry have now blurred to an
extent that the term plant biochemistry seems poised to subsume the term
"phytochemistry"