Historically, natural products have been used since ancient times and in folklore for the treatment of many diseases and illnesses. Classical natural product chemistry methodologies enabled a vast array of bioactive secondary metabolites from terrestrial and marine sources to be discovered. Many of these natural products have gone on to become current drug candidates. This brief review aims to highlight historically significant bioactive marine and terrestrial natural products, their use in folklore and dereplication techniques to rapidly facilitate their discovery. Furthermore a discussion of how natural product chemistry has resulted in the identification of many drug candidates; the application of advanced hyphenated spectroscopic techniques to aid in their discovery, the future of natural product chemistry and finally adopting metabolomic profiling and dereplication approaches for the comprehensive study of natural product extracts will be discussed.

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Four imidazo-azolo-imidazole alkaloids, axinellamines A-D, have been isolated from an Australian marine sponge, Axinella sp. (order: Halichondrida: family: Axinellidae). These compounds contain a unique perhydrocyclopenta-imidazo-azolo-imidazole carbon skeleton. Three of these compounds had bactericidal activity against Helicobacter pylori at 1000 &mgr;M.

A specimen of Dendrilla cactos collected during trawling operations in Bass Strait, Australia, has yielded two new alkaloids, lamellarin-O (17) and lamellarin-P (18). Both these metabolites are examples of the lamellarin structure class, previously reported from tunicates and a mollusc; however, in these examples the pyrrole ring system is not fused to adjacent aromatic rings. The structures of (17) and (18) were secured by spectroscopic analysis and partial synthesis.

A specimen of Dendrilla cactos collected off the coast of New South Wales, Australia, has yielded two new alkaloids, lamellarins Q (19) and R (20), the structures of which were secured by spectroscopic analysis and by chemical derivatization.

An Australian tunicate Didemnum sp. has yielded a new alkaloid lamellarin-S (1) along with the known compound lamellarin-K (12). Of this structure class, lamellarin-S (1) is the first example that demonstrates atropisomerism, and its structure was secured by spectroscopic analysis.* The numbering scheme used for lamellarin-S is that previously documented in the literature and different to IUPAC convention. The IUPAC name for lamellarin-S (1) is 14-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-2,3,1l-trihydroxy-12-methoxy-8,9-dihydro-6H-[1] benzopyrano[4',3':4,5]pyrrolo[2,1-a]isoquinolin-6-one.

Hericium erinaceus (Bull.: Fr.) Pers. is an edible and medicinal mushroom used traditionally to improve memory. In this study, we investigated the neuritogenic effects of hericenones isolated from H. erinaceus and the mechanisms of action involved. H. erinaceus was cultivated and the secondary metabolites were elucidated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The secondary metabolites were tested for neurite outgrowth activity (if any). Rat pheochromocytoma (PC12) cells were employed and the nerve growth factor (NGF) level was also determined. The signaling pathways involved in the mushroom-induced neuritogenesis were investigated using several pharmacological inhibitors. Hericenones B-E (1-4), erinacerin A (5) and isohericerin (6) were isolated from the basidiocarps of H. erinaceus. The hericenones did not promote neurite outgrowth but when induced with a low concentration of NGF (5 ng mL(-1)), the neuritogenic activity was comparable to that of the positive control (50 ng mL(-1) of NGF). Hericenone E was able to stimulate NGF secretion which was two-fold higher than that of the positive control. The neuritogenesis process was partially blocked by the tyrosine kinase receptor (Trk) inhibitor, K252a, suggesting that the neuritogenic effect was not solely due to NGF. Hericenone E also increased the phosphorylation of extracellular-signal regulated kinases (ERKs) and protein kinase B (Akt). Taken together, this study suggests that hericenone E potentiated NGF-induced neuritogenesis in PC12 cells via the MEK/ERK and PI3K/Akt pathways.

Previous studies have indicated that the yellow pigments (xanthomonadins) produced by phytopathogenicXanthomonas bacteria are unimportant during pathogenesis but may be important for protection against photobiological damage. We used a Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris parent strain, single-site transposon insertion mutant strains, and chromosomally restored mutant strains to define the biological role of xanthomonadins. Although xanthomonadin mutant strains were comparable to the parent strain for survival when exposed to UV light; after their exposure to the photosensitizer toluidine blue and visible light, survival was greatly reduced. Chromosomally restored mutant strains were completely restored for survival in these conditions. Likewise, epiphytic survival of a xanthomonadin mutant strain was greatly reduced in conditions of high light intensity, whereas a chromosomally restored mutant strain was comparable to the parent strain for epiphytic survival. These results are discussed with respect to previous results, and a model for epiphytic survival of X. campestris pv. campestris is presented.Xanthomonas bacteria are the causal agents of disease on at least 124 monocot and 268 dicot plant hosts (12), and many of them can survive and multiply as epiphytes (8,24). Most Xanthomonas bacteria produce yellow, membrane-bound, brominated aryl-polyene pigments referred to as xanthomonadins (24). Xanthomonadins are unique to Xanthomonas bacteria and serve as useful chemotaxonomic (2, 25) and diagnostic (22) markers. With methods of artificial infection, xanthomonadin-deficient strains were not affected in pathogenicity, symptomatology, or in planta growth (15). Thus, the xanthomonadins apparently are not important to the pathogen after infection of the host plant.Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris, the causal agent of black rot of crucifers and one of the most serious disease problems in crucifer production, naturally infects its host via hydathodes or wounds in the leaves (28). A cluster of seven transcriptional units required for xanthomonadin production (pigA to pigG) was previously identified in X. campestris pv. campestris (13,15). In addition to a loss of xanthomonadin production, pigB mutant strains were also greatly impaired in the production of extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) and a pheromone (DF). Mutations in the other pig transcriptional units did not appear to have pleiotropic affects. When tested on the host plant, pigB mutants were significantly reduced in epiphytic survival and natural host infection via hydathodes (16). DF extracellularly restored all of these traits to a pigB mutant strain (4, 15, 16), indicating that DF is needed for xanthomonadin and EPS production, as well as for epiphytic survival and host infection. These results suggest that DF acts as a signal for the initiation of xanthomonadin and EPS production and that xanthomonadins and EPS may play a role in host infection and/or epiphytic survival.The results of other studies suggest an association of xanthomonadins with protec...