This book presents comprehensively the occurrence, patterns of variation, and systematic and evolutionary
importance of flavonoids in the sunflower family (Asteraceae or Compositae). This family is one of the largest
families of flowering plants with more than 23,000 species distributed on all continents except Antarctica. The
family has received considerable attention from systematists and evolutionary biologists to attempt to explain the
phenomenal success of the group as well as to provide a predictive classification. The recent publication by Prof.
K. Bremer in 1994 of a major book synthesizing morphological aspects of the family, including a new cladistic-
based classification, plus the proceedings from the Kew Compositae Conference published in two volumes in 1996,
have together provided a new overview of morphological and other dimensions of the family. Molecular studies by
Prof. R. Jansen and colleagues have also given new important insights to higher level relationships within the
family.
Flavonoids are secondary plant products that have been used extensively and successfully for systematic and
evolutionary interpretations among taxa of flowering plants. In particular, thousands of studies have been
completed in Asteraceae, covering several decades. What is needed at this time, then, is an analysis of patterns of
variation and evolutionary significance of flavonoids within Asteraceae in the context of new ideas of classification
and evolution that have been recently published. This involves analyzing all previous literature reports of
flavonoids within the family beginning mostly from the 1950s to present, and including several thousand
references, within the new framework of generic, subtribal, tribal, and subfamilial concepts.
This book presents for the first time, therefore, the efficacy of flavonoids in a major family of flowering plants
within the framework of new phylogenetic information and corresponding classifications. Such an interpretive
synthesis has never before been accomplished for any large family of angiosperms. The results show new patterns
emerging at different levels of the taxonomic hierarchy. Flavonoids do show correlations at subfamilial and tribal
levels, and even more significant utility at generic levels. Numerous discussions in the text highlight pertinent
further research projects involving certain taxa.
In addition to detailed observations on distributions of flavonoids within the family contained within the book,
introductory chapters introduce the reader to basic aspects of flavonoid structure, biosynthesis, and function
(designed for the botanical reader), as well as to the classification, evolution and biogeography of the sunflower
family (designed for the chemist). Hence, the book leads the reader into the scholarly content and analysis in a
useful fashion, and is therefore accessible to a broader readership.