ABSTRACT
References ........................................................................................................ 276
Specialized metabolites are lineage-specic phytochemicals that are basically considered to be a consequence of chemical adaptation to their habitat environment. Glycosylation, which involves sugar conjugation, is a key mechanism that regulates the bioactivity and storage of specialized metabolites as well as the detoxication of xenobiotics by increasing water solubility and reducing the reactivity of the metabolites (Bowles et al. 2005). Since it is generally acknowledged that considerable numbers of specialized metabolites are found in a sugar-conjugated form, “glycoside” in nature, a sugar conjugation reaction (glycosylation) is a common for specialized metabolites. Generally, glucose is the most commonly observed sugar moiety in naturally occurring glycosylated metabolites in plants, but other sugar moieties such as rhamnose, galactose, glucuronic acid, arabinose, and xylose are also present.
