Plant defensive compounds and their biochemical targets -- Introduction -- Organization and scope of the book -- Description of the tables -- Using the tables -- The structural diversity of plant defensive compounds -- Plant alkaloids -- Plant phenolics -- Plant terpenes -- Other plant compounds -- Biochemistry: the chemistry of life -- Introduction: water-based life -- Protein structure -- Enzymes and ligand-binding proteins -- Metabolic strategies -- Inhibition of biochemical processes by plant defensive compounds -- Neurotransmitter- and hormone-gated ion channels -- Introduction: electrical signalling in excitable cells -- Ionotropic neurotransmitter receptors: neurotransmitter-gated ion channels -- Structure and function of ionotropic receptors -- Ion pumps, ligand- and voltage-gated ion channels -- Introduction -- Ion pumps -- Voltage-gated Na⁺ channels -- Ligand-regulated and voltage-gated K⁺ channels -- Voltage-gated Ca²⁺ channels -- Ligand-gated Ca²⁺ channels -- Chloride transport and voltage-regulated chloride channels.