Mahendra K. Rai is Professor and Head of the Department of Biotechnology at Amravati University in Maharashtra, India. He has published 210 research papers, more than 100 popular articles in Indian and foreign journals and 31 books. He has received several prestigious awards, including the Father T.A. Mathias Award (1989) from the All India Association for Christian Higher Education, and the Medini Award (1999) from the Department of Environment and Forest, Government of India. Caue Ribeiro and Luiz Mattoso are researchers from the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, Sao Carlos Nelson Duran is professor at the Institute of Chemistry, Biological Chemistry Laboratory, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil