Current Organic Chemistry - Volume 7, Issue 12, 2003

Natural product chemistry covers various aspects of research into compounds from different plant, animal and microbial sources: their analysis, isolation, biological and pharmacological activities. In the 2003 Natural Product Chemistry issue of Current Organic Chemistry, there are five contributions which illustrate this diversity. The first refers to a survey of phytohormones. As their name implies, these hormones are of Read More

Phytohormones describe substances of plant origin with a hormonal activity. Epidemiological studies have shown a high health care potential for phytoestrogens. They are plant secondary metabolites with structural analogies to estradiol and with an influence on the estrogenic hormonal pathways. The main chemical classes are isoflavones, lignans, coumestans, prenylflavonoids and stilbene derivatives and occur in food Read More

Since our review in Current Organic Chemistry in 1997 (Curr. Org. Chem. 1997, 1, p. 307-344), important advances have been made in the field of natural products antiviral research. Therefore, we provide here a comprehensive review of the latest developments on plant substances as antiviral agents. The review is mainly focused on plant-derived substances with an anti-human immunodeficiency virus (anti-HIV) and an anti-her Read More

Between 1971 and 2000, eighty brominated diterpenes were isolated from only two groups of marine organisms: red algae and gastropods, so it is likely that all bromoditerpenes only originate from Rhodophyceae and herbivorous molluscs which feed on them. Occurrence and general considerations on the encountered carbon skeletons are presented in the two first parts of this review. All brominated diterpenes are pr Read More

Artemisinin, a highly oxygenated sesquiterpene lactone endoperoxide isolated by Chinese researchers in 1971 has been found to be a superior plasmocidal and blood schizontocidal agent to conventional antimalarial drugs against malarial strains. Since then, an enormous amount of work has been done on this molecule by different groups covering aspects such as characterisation, total synthesis, understanding of the mec Read More

Secondary metabolites of marine invertebrates continue to attract the attention of organic chemists, biochemists, and pharmacologists due to their novel structures and potent biological activities. One such example is cephalostatin 1 isolated from the Indian Ocean hemichordate Cephalodiscus gilchristi, which exhibited remarkable cytotoxic activity against a broad spectrum of malignant tumor cells. Similar marine alkaloids (e.g. Read More