Bioactive Marine Xanthones: A Review

Abstract

The marine environment is an important source of specialized metabolites with valuable biological activities. Xanthones are a relevant chemical class of specialized metabolites found in this environment due to their structural variety and their biological activities. In this work, a comprehensive literature review of marine xanthones reported up to now was performed. A large number of bioactive xanthone derivatives (169) were identified, and their structures, biological activities, and natural sources were described. To characterize the chemical space occupied by marine-derived xanthones, molecular descriptors were calculated. For the analysis of the molecular descriptors, the xanthone derivatives were grouped into five structural categories (simple, prenylated, O-heterocyclic, complex, and hydroxanthones) and six biological activities (antitumor, antibacterial, antidiabetic, antifungal, antiviral, and miscellaneous). Moreover, the natural product-likeness and the drug-likeness of marine xanthones were also assessed. Marine xanthone derivatives are rewarding bioactive compounds and constitute a promising starting point for the design of other novel bioactive molecules.

Biosynthetic Pathways of Dimeric Natural Products Containing Bisanthraquinone and Related Xanthones

“…Anthraquinone [16–21] and the related xanthone [22–31] are important skeletons widely occurring in bioactive compounds with the anticancer, anti‐inflammatory, antifungal, antibacterial, antiviral, and neuroprotection effects. In addition to anthraquinone and the related xanthone monomers, dimeric natural products containing bisanthraquinone [32] and related xanthones [33] show not only great bioactivities against bacteria and cancer cells, also excellent photodynamic activity for potential applications in photodynamic therapy (Figure 1).…”

A Comprehensive Review of the Phytochemical and Pharmacological Potential of an Evergreen Plant Garcinia cowa

“…Evaluation through Gleeson rules “Simple” and “hydroxanthones” obey most of the criteria. In the case of “prenylated” xanthones, few and “complex” xanthones do not at all obey the generality of Gleeson's proposed criteria [23] …”

“…In the case of "prenylated" xanthones, few and "complex" xanthones do not at all obey the generality of Gleeson's proposed criteria. [23] Xanthones isolated from the Garcinia sp. are arranged into five significant groups, i. e., prenylated xanthones, xanthone glycosides, simple oxygenated xanthones, xanthonolignoids, and miscellaneous xanthones.…”

Marine-Derived Xanthone from 2010 to 2021: Isolation, Bioactivities and Total Synthesis

“…These xanthones are usually highly substituted, with different substituent patterns being the substituents found to be essential for four types; hydroxy, methoxy, methyl, and methoxycarbonyl groups. It seems that the methoxy group is not common in bioactive marine xanthones [ 50 ], but yicathins B ( 3 ) and C ( 4 ) ( Figure 2 ), which were recently prepared by total synthesis [ 51 ], present such a group at C-8. Other examples include xanthones bearing a 6-methoxy group ( 2 ) and ( 6 ) and 7-methoxy group ( 13 ) and ( 15 ) ( Figure 2 ).…”