SECONDARY

METABOLITIES
INTRODUCTION
SOURCE
ROLE
TYPES
FUNCTIONS
SECONDARY METABOLITE
Secondary metabolites, also called specialised
metabolites, toxins, secondary products, or 
natural products, are organic compounds produced by 
bacteria, fungi, or plants which are not directly involved in
the normal growth, development, or reproduction of the
organism.
he term secondary metabolite was first coined by 
Albrecht Kossel, a 1910 Nobel Prize laureate for medicine
and physiology in 1910.[2] 30 years later a Polish botanist 
Friedrich Johann Franz Czapek described secondary
metabolites as end products of nitrogen metabolism
SECONDARY

METABOLITIES
Many plants, fungi and microbes of certain genera and families
synthesize a number of organic compounds which are not involved
in primary metabolism (pho­tosynthesis, respiration, and protein
and lipid metabolism) and seem to have no direct function in
growth and development of plants.
Such compounds are called secondary metabolites (secondary
plant products or natural prod
These compounds are accessary rather than central to the
functioning of the plants in which they are found.
These compounds are produced in small quantities and their
extraction from the plant is difficult and expensive.
They accumulate in small quantities only in specific parts of plants.
These are derivatives of primary metabolites. By the cultivation of
plant cells in culture media, secondary metabolites can be
produced on large scale.
ucts)
Sources of secondary metabolites
The major sources of secondary metabolites are plants
(80% of secondary metabolite), bacteria, fungi, and
many marine organisms (sponges, tunicates, corals,
and snails)
ROLE OF SECONDARY METABOLITIES
(1) Some of them attract animals for pollination and
seed dispersal.
(2) They are used by the plants in their defence against
herbivores and pathogens.
(3) They act as agents of plant-plant competition.
(4) They are used in making drugs, insecticides,
flavours, pigments, scents, rubber, spices and other
industrial materials like gums, resins for human
welfare.
Types of Secondary Metabolites
These secondary metabolites are highly numerous in
number, chemically diverse in nature and belong to
three groups.
1. Isoprenoids or Terpenes, e.g., rubber, steroids,
essential oils, carotenoid pigments.
2. Nitrogen containing compounds, e.g., alkaloids,
glucosinolates, glycosides, non-pro­tein amino acids.
3. Phenolic compounds, e.g., lignin, tannins,
coumarins, aflatoxins, flavonoids (anthocyanins).
There are five main classes of secondary metabolites
such as terpenoids and steroids, fatty acid-derived
substances and polyketides, alkaloids, nonribosomal
polypeptides, and enzyme cofactors
2.1. Terpenoids and steroids
They are major group of substances derived
biosynthetically from isopentenyl diphosphate.
Currently, over 35,000 known terpenoid and steroid
compounds are identified. Terpenoids have different
variety of unrelated structures, while steroids have a
common tetracyclic carbon skeleton and are modified
terpenoids that are biosynthesized from the triterpene
lanosterol.
2.2. Alkaloids
There are over 12,000 known compounds of alkaloids, and
their basic structures consist of basic amine group and are
derived biosynthetically from amino acids.
2.3. Fatty acid-derived substances and polyketides
Around 10,000 compounds are identified and are
biosynthesized from simple acyl precursors such as propionyl
CoA, acetyl CoA, and methylmalonyl CoA.
2.4. Nonribosomal polypeptides
These amino acids derived compounds are biologically
synthesized by a multifunctional enzyme complex without
direct RNA transcription.
2.5. Enzyme cofactors
Enzyme cofactors are nonprotein, low-molecular enzyme
component
Functions of secondary
The major functionsmetabolites
of the secondary metabolites including
antibiotics are:
competitive weapons against other livings such as animals,
plants, insects, and microorganisms
metal transporting agents
agents for symbiotic relation with other organisms
reproductive agent and
differentiation effectors
agents of communication between organisms
The other functions include interference in spore formation
(not obligatory) and germination [5]. Predominantly, the
secondary metabolites are used for variety of biological
activities like antimicrobial and antiparasitic agents, enzyme
inhibitors and antitumor agent, immunosuppressive agents,
etc.