Preface STILBENES PREPARATION AND ANALYSIS General Classical Methods and Their Development Miscellaneous Chemical Methods of Stilbene Synthesis Physically Promoted Reactions Synthesis of Stilbene Dendrimers Stilbene Cyclodextrin Derivatives Stilbenes on Templates Stilbenes Analysis STILBENE CHEMICAL REACTIONS Halogenation of Stilbenes Oxidation of Stilbenes Stilbene Reduction Other Reactions Stilbenes in Polymerization Complexation STILBENE PHOTOPHYSICS General Stilbene Excited States Absorption Spectra Fluorescence from Excited Singlet States Interactions Involving Triplet State and Phosphorescence Fluorescence of Excimers and Ecxiplexes Energy Transfer Intramolecular Charge Transfer STILBENE PHOTOISOMERIZATION General Mechanisms of Photoisomerization Effect of Substituents and Polarity Viscosity Effect Miscellaneous Experimental Data on Photoisomerization MISCELLANEOUS STILBENE PHOTOCHEMICAL REACTIONS Photocyclization Bimolecular Reactions Photoreactions in Stilbene Dendrimers Reactions in Polymers and Other Matrices Reaction Using Two-Photon Excitation Charge Transfer Ionization STILBENE MATERIALS Stilbene Lasers Electro-Optic Materials Electrophotographic Material Light-Emitting Diodes Materials for Nonlinear Optics Light-Emitting Materials Materials for Image-Forming Apparatuses Radioluminescence Materials: Scintillators Miscellaneous BIOACTIVE STILBENES Resveratrol Combretastatin and Its Analogues Pterostilbene PRECLINIC EFFECTS OF STILBENES Resveratrol Compretastatin Pterostilbene STILBENES IN CLINICS General trans-Resveratrol Combretastatin Other Stilbenoids STILBENES AS MOLECULAR PROBES General Theoretical Grounds Experimental Methods and Their Applications MODERN METHODS OF STILBENE INVESTIGATIONS General Nanosecond Transient Absorption Spectroscopy Femtosecond Broadband Pump-Probe Spectroscopy Fluorescence Picosecond Time-Resolved Single Photon Counting The Fluorescence Upconversion Spectroscopy Femtosecond Time-Resolved Fluorescence Depletion Spectroscopy High-Speed Asynchronous Optical Sampling Multiphoton Excitation Time-Resolved Vibrational Spectroscopy CONCLUSIONS.