Sesquiterpene coumarins

Abstract

Plants have a long history as therapeutic tools in the treatment of human diseases and have been used as a source of medicines for ages. In search of new biologically active natural products, many plants and herbs used in traditional medicine are screened for natural products with pharmacological activity. In this paper, we present a group of natural products, the sesquiterpene coumarins isolated from plants, and describe their wide range of biological activity. Sesquiterpene coumarins are found in some plants of the families Apiaceae (Umbelliferae), Asteraceae (Compositae) and Rutaceae. The coumarin moiety is often umbelliferone (7-hydroxycoumarin) but scopoletin (7-hydroxy-6-methoxycoumarin) and isofraxidin (7-hydroxy-6,8-dimethoxycoumarin) are also found. These coumarins are linked to a C 15 terpene moiety through an ether linkage. Another group of sesquiterpene coumarins is the prenylated 4-hydroxycoumarins where the link between the coumarin and the C 15 terpene moiety is a C-C-bond at carbon 3 of the coumarin moiety. Finally, the prenyl-furocoumarintype sesquiterpenoids are a separate group of sesquiterpene coumarins based on the suggested biosynthetic pathway. Our relatively limited knowledge on the biosynthesis of sesquiterpene coumarins is reviewed.

Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Novel Coumarins withtert‐Butyl and Terpene Substituents

“…Coumarins (1,2-benzopyrone) are a class of heterocyclic compounds widely distributed in nature as secondary metabolites of plants, fungi and bacteria and isolated from many species of plant families, Umbelliferae, Rutaceae, Asteraceae, Rosaceae and Rubiaceae. [2,3] Many coumarins exhibit a variety of biological and pharmacological activities, such as antifungal, hepatoprotective, antitumor, antiviral, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. [4 -9] The different types of substitution in the coumarin basic structure can influence their biological activity.…”

Synthesis, biosynthesis and biological activities of galbanic acid – A review

“…& Buhse. These compounds have shown various biological activities including anti-inflammatory, antitumor, cytotoxic, and antiviral activities (Gliszczyńska & Brodelius, 2012;Iranshahy & Iranshahi, 2011;Nazari & Iranshahi, 2011). Among the sesquiterpene coumarins, GA has drawn special attention for its promising biological activities.…”

Cytotoxic activity of the root and fruit extracts of heptaptera anisoptera (dc.) tutin

“…Heptaptera species are known to contain sesquiterpene coumarin derivatives 3,4 , these compounds have various biological activities such as; cytotoxicity, P-glycoprotein inhibitory, cancer chemoprevention, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antileishmanial, antiviral, antidiabetic, etc. [5][6][7][8][9] .…”