Abstract Biodiversity may be defined as the variability
occuring among living organisms and affecting
all species of animals and plants, their genetics and
their environment. Biological diversity of plants also
relies on the chemical diversity deriving from their
specialized metabolites which possess a wide range of
different chemical structures as a result of plant
evolution. They are responsible for the plant ecological
properties and are required for the plant-environment
interactions. In addition, many of them display
important pharmacological properties. In the recent
years, the growing interest in using plant metabolites
to treat diseases in humans and animals and the high
request of health products originating from natural
sources rather than synthetic has revived the research
on plant biodiversity to identify new bioactive
molecules. Based on our studies on the chemical and
biological characterization of rare or less studied plant
species, the present paper aims to describe a selection
of botanical species with phytopharmaceutical importance
in order to highlight the chemical polymorphism
deriving from their biodiversity along with its implications
on bioactivity
