Handbook of Biologically Active Peptides

User Reviews

• Vijay Shankar
  14 May 2014 at 12:06 am

  A Mammoth Handbook on Peptides

  There can be several books that are published, as monographs on the advances of a certain field. But only occasionally some special publications like this book can be seen. Putting together a plethora of research information into short chapters with crisp structure and language is possible only through a humongous effort by the editor. That is what the editor of the handbook Abba J Kastin has done, both for the first and the second edition of the book.

  Since seven years after the publication of the first edition of the Handbook of Biologically Active Peptides, the field of Peptide Science has indeed grown far, wide and deep. With some meaningful modifications to the first edition of the book, Abba Kastin and colleagues have come up with this mammoth book on biologically active peptides.

  There are twenty sections in the book with a big bag of examples. For instance, there are reviews on plant-, fungal-, venom-, skin-, bacterial-, cancer/anticancer-, vaccine-, immune-, brain peptides, and so on. There are also many known and rare peptides that are typically explained. Some of the peptides, for example are, colicins, lantibiotics, phytosulfokine, temporins, dermaseptins, scorpion and snake peptides, orexins, chemokines, ghrelin, and so on.

  The chapters are structured in a way to address the discovery, molecular biology, structural biology, biochemical and/or pathophysiological roles, and their interactions with cellular machineries or other peptides. Wherever necessary, the authors have provided data and microscopic images, although there is a separate Plates section where there are images in colour. Using clear supporting details as lists and tables, and selective lists of references at the back of each chapter, the contributing authors have done a great job in bringing an encyclopaedic reference on biologically active peptides. These are the strengths of the book besides the coloured hard board that holds the 2000 and more pages.

  However there are a few shortcomings. The editor warns us in the Preface that there could be some omissions. He goes a bit forward to say that a chapter on one of his favourite peptides is omitted. For a huge effort on such a hulky book, a bit more work on adding those exempted peptides would certainly satisfy the reader further. The reader thus need not get off the desk to find other books for certain peptides. For instance, excluding chapters on cyclotides, a growing sub-field in peptide science is a dent. A few more dents are created by the missing chapters, for example on, lysins, peptide hormones, and peptides from marine organisms. There could be many more omissions.

  Nevertheless, these tiny dents do not affect the quality of this encyclopaedic handbook, as it is immensely detailed and extremely useful. It is almost a one-stop-shop for peptides researchers to dig in before they scratch their lab benches. With strong hopes on improvement in further editions, let us keep this book snuggly between our arms to know the world of peptides.