Chalcone: A Promising Bioactive Scaffold in Medicinal Chemistry

Abstract

Chalcones are a class of privileged scaffolds with high medicinal significance due to the presence of an α,β-unsaturated ketone functionality. Numerous functional modifications of chalcones have been reported, along with their pharmacological behavior. The present review aims to summarize the structures from natural sources, synthesis methods, biological characteristics against infectious and non-infectious diseases, and uses of chalcones over the past decade, and their structure–activity relationship studies are detailed in depth. This critical review provides guidelines for the future design and synthesis of various chalcones. In addition, this could be highly supportive for medicinal chemists to develop more promising candidates for various infectious and non-infectious diseases.

Synthesis, reactions and application of chalcones: a systematic review

“…2). 20 Several hydroxy chalcones have medical and pharmaceutical uses based on anti-cancer, 21,22 antioxidant, 19 antiinflammatory, 23,24 antidiabetic, 25 anti-microbial, and neuroprotective properties. [26][27][28] Particularly, the outcomes of clinical trials for the treatment of trunk or branch varicosity and chronic venous lymphatic insufficiency with hesperidin methylchalcone and hesperidin trimethylchalcone (displayed in Fig.…”

The neuroprotective effects of Chalcones from Ashitaba on cuprizone‐induced demyelination via modulation of brain‐derived neurotrophic factor and tumor necrosis factor α

“…Ashitaba contains many bioactive substances, such as chalcones. The Chalcones from Ashitaba (ChA), because of their valuable biological properties and simple chemical scaffold, are promising candidates for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases (Rajendran et al., 2022; Zhuang et al., 2017). Small polar surface areas of these Chalcones facilitate them to cross the blood–brain barrier (BBB) and display pharmacological effects with high efficacy in protecting central nervous system (CNS) structures (Mathew et al., 2015).…”

Design, Synthesis, Anticancer Screening and Molecular Modelling Studies of Novel Thiazoles

“…This scaffold can exist either as Z (cis) or E (trans) isomers in which the latter is thermodynamically more stable than the former [26] . Over the years, chalcone scaffolds have exhibited impressive varied pharmacological activities including anti‐inflammatory, anti‐fungal, anti‐bacterial, antioxidant, anti‐viral, and anti‐cancer [27] …”

“…[26] Over the years, chalcone scaffolds have exhibited impressive varied pharmacological activities including anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, antioxidant, anti-viral, and anti-cancer. [27] Mainly, chalcone derivatives could be synthesized through a Claisen-Schmidt reaction (Figure 2A) in an acidic or basic medium. Another synthetic route is Friedel-Craft's acylation, (Figure 2B) which includes strong Lewis acid (aluminium trichloride AlCl 3 ) as a catalyst that activates the electrophile (acyl chloride or acid anhydride) yielding an acylium ion.…”