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Secondary metabolites are organic compounds that are not directly involved in the normal growth, development, or reproduction of organisms. Unlike primary metabolites, absence of secondary metabolites does not result in immediate death, but rather in long-term impairment of the organism's survivability, fecundity, or aesthetics, or perhaps in no significant change at all. Secondary metabolites are often restricted to a narrow set of species within a phylogenetic group.
The function or importance of these compounds to the organism's development is usually of ecological nature as they are used as defence against predators (herbivores, pathogens etc.), for interspecies competition, and to facilitate the reproductive processes.
Contrary to primary metabolites these compounds are not ubiquitous in the living organisms who produce them nor are they necessarily expressed continuously. Although plants are better known as a source of secondary metabolites, bacteria, fungi and many marine organisms (sponges, tunicates, corals, snails) are very interesting sources, too.
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