Book excerpt: This detailed treatise is written for chemists who are not NMR spectroscopists but who wish to use carbon-13 NMR spectroscopy. It shows why measurement of carbon-13 NMR is needed and explains how the method can - or should - be used for rapid characterization of flavonoids, one of the most diverse and widespread groups of natural constituents. The first part of the book presents background information and discussion of the essential aspects of flavonoids and carbon-13 NMR spectroscopy and demonstrates its significant role in the revision of several earlier established chemical structures. It discusses various one- and two-dimensional NMR spectroscopic techniques and other relevant experimental methodologies for the interpretation of spectral details which enable individual resonance lines to be associated with the appropriate carbons in a molecule. The second part provides a comprehensive coverage of the carbon-13 chemical shifts of various classes and subclasses of flavonoids. It also illustrates how to utilize carbon-13 data to gain information for the determination of the nature, number and site of any substituent in flavonoids. Vital information for the differential and complete structure elucidation of the various classes of flavonoids by carbon-13 NMR shielding data is described in-depth in the third part of the book. The book will be welcomed by all those working in natural product chemistry who will appreciate the non-mathematical approach and the fact that such a wealth of theoretical and practical information has been assembled in a single volume.