Phytochemicals as Lead Compounds for New Drug Discovery

Chukwuebuka Egbuna (PhD) is a chartered chemist and academic researcher. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Chemists of Nigeria (ICCON), the Nigerian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (NSBMB), and the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) (United Kingdom). Dr. Egbuna is the founder and editor of the Elsevier book series on Drug Discovery Update. The series includes books, monographs, and edited collections from all areas of drug discovery including emerging therapeutic claims for the treatment of diseases. He has published research articles in many international journals of repute and is ranked among the top 500 Nigerian scientists in SciVal/SCOPUS. He has edited more than 25 books with Elsevier, Springer, Wiley, and Taylor & Francis. His most recent book is the three volume Coronavirus Drug Discovery, published by Elsevier. Dr. Egbuna is the founder and the publishing director of IPS Intelligentsia Publishing Services.

Shashank Kumar, PhD, obtained his BSc, MSc, and PhD degrees in biochemistry from the University of Allahabad. He has worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Biochemistry in King George’s Medical University. Dr. Kumar has about 60 published scientific papers, reviews, editorial articles, and book chapters in various national and international peer-reviewed journals and has been cited more than 1,200 times. His expertise is in the areas of free radical biology, cancer biology, characterization of plant products, xenobiotic metabolism, and microbiology. He is familiar with many biochemical techniques such as spectrophotometry, ELISA, electrophoresis, PCR, RT-PCR, flow cytometry, TLC, HPLC, LC-MS, cell culture, and microbiological techniques. He has presented his research findings at more than 25 national and international conferences and has attended about 30 workshops at many major universities and medical colleges throughout the India. Dr. Kumar is a life-time member of the Italo-Latin American Society of Ethnomedicine and the Indian Sciences Congress Association, and a member of the Asian Council of Science Editors in Dubai and Publication Integrity & Ethics in London. He has been awarded junior, senior, and research associate fellowships formulated and funded by various Indian agencies, such as the Indian Council of Medical Research, University Grants Commission, and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research India.

Dr. Jonathan Chinenye Ifemeje, PhD, is an Associate Professor (Reader) in the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Nigeria. He has published over 40 articles with international publishers and has attended series of workshops and conferences. He has also served as an external examiner for various institutions. He is the managing editor of the Tropical Journal of Applied Natural Sciences and a reviewer and an editorial board member for various reputable journals. He has worked extensively in the areas of phytochemistry, environment, and nutritional toxicology. He is a member of various institutes, including the Institute of Chartered Chemists of Nigeria, the Nigerian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Society of Quality Assurance. Dr. Ifemeje is presently the Director of Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES), COOU and the Department of Biochemistry Postgraduate Coordinator, COOU. He has also served as the department and faculty staff adviser. He obtained his PhD in applied biochemistry from Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria, and his MSc degree in nutrition and toxicology from the University of Port-Harcourt, Nigeria.

Professor Shahira M. Ezzat holds a Ph.D in pharmacognosy from the College of Pharmacy, Cairo University (CU) since 2007. She is a frequent speaker in conferences around the world, in which she won several prizes for excellent presentations. She has published over 60 articles including research articles, reviews, books, and book chapters in the field of chemistry and biological activity of natural products. She is positioned as a professor and head of Department of Pharmacognosy, College of Pharmacy, MSA University, Egypt. Her main field of research includes the isolation of bioactive plant constituents using advanced chromatographic techniques and the elucidation of their structures using different chemical and spectral methods. She has also performed work using in vitro enzymes-based assays for biological evaluation of plant extracts and the standardization of biologically active extracts using HPLC and other advanced techniques. In addition to identification of chemical constituents in plant extracts using HPLC-MS/MS and UPLC-MS/MS, Professor Ezzat currently works on the deep mechanism of anticancer activity of pure compounds in collaboration with National Cancer Institute (NCI) and searches for the effectiveness of Egyptian herbs as antiaging agents.

Dr. Saravanan Kaliyaperumal has been engaged in teaching and research for over 16 years. He obtained MSc Wildlife Biology and PhD degrees at A.V.C. College, Mayiladuthurai, and obtained his MSc, Bioinformatics degree at Annamalai University, India. He has been awarded Har Gobind Kohorana Best Scientist Award (2016-17). He has published 55 research papers and a book and has contributed chapters to four other books. He has completed one major research project and has organized one national and two international conferences, as well as three state-level workshops. He has been engaged in a number of academic roles at Nehru Memorial College, including his most recent appointment as Dean of Academic Affairs. He is a reviewer and editorial board member of various journals. He is a member of Indian Society of Systems for Science and Engineering and OISCA-International in Tokyo, Japan.