Natures Chemicals – The Natural Products that Shaped Our World (book review)

Title :- Natures Chemicals – The Natural Products that Shaped Our World.

By :- Richard Firn.

Published :- Oxford University Press. 2010 Paperback (230 pages).

Outline :- the main agriculture grain & food crops are high in starch, but low in terms of odour and flavour. Most foods contain Nitrogen, and in some cases these molecules are polar and thus water soluble. Some of these alkali produce Natural Products (NP) that enhance or stimulate our brains reaction in terms of odour, flavour and other effects. Opium was an early example of such an important NP. The book looks at coffee, sugar and extensions into herbs, penicillin and new artificially produced medicines.