Progress in Syntheses of 3-n-Butylphthalide and Its Analogues

3-n-Butylphthalide (1) and its analogues, which are the main components in the volatile oil of celery as well as a wide range of umbelliferae and composite plants, have potential applications as hypotensive drugs because of their strong pharmacological activities, such as improving the microcirculatory system of man's brain, improving nervous function deficiency, antiasthma, anticonvulsion, inhibiting platelet aggregation, inhibiting prostaglandin (PG) F2a growth, enhancing blood flow volume, antitumorigenesis, hypotensive activity and so on, so the investigation on the syntheses and applications of them has attracted considerable attention. The significant synthetic methods of 3-n-butylphthalide and its analogues were summarized and discussed in this review and it is expected that it may be valuable for their further development and applications.