Mini-Reviews in Organic Chemistry - Volume 11, Issue 3, 2014

Triterpenoids are nature-derived compounds, broadly distributed in plant kingdom in a free form as well as in a form of numerous glycosides. The complex structures of triterpenoids chiefly involve squalene derivatives, lanostanes, cycloartanes, dammaranes, euphanes, tirucallanes, tetranortriterpenoids, quassinoids, lupanes, oleananes, friedelanes, ursanes, hopanes, serratanes and another less known groups. These Read More

A serious flaw of many chemotherapeutics employed now for the (post-surgery) treatment of malignant tumors is their high cytotoxicity against vital organs. In addition, tumor cells that survive chemotherapy often show pronounced drug resistance against a wide range of therapeutics. Recently, glycyrrhetinic acid derivatives derived from a cheap and easy-to-obtain natural product have attracted pharmacological intere Read More

Over the last two decades, extensive research on compounds isolated from fruits, vegetables, cereals, herbs and medicinal plants has revealed that triterpenoids possess important pharmacological properties. Among the group of triterpenoids, pentacyclic ones show wide range of extensively studied pharmacokinetics linked with anticancer and antiviral action. In the group of pentacyclic triterpenoids the most activ Read More

Limonoids are chemically classified on the basis of the four rings, marked as A, B, C and D in the intact triterpene nucleus with various oxidative modifications. The structural variations of limonoids found in Rutaceae species are lesser than in species of Meliaceae. Limonoids isolated from the plant family Meliaceae are more complex with very high degree of oxidation and structural rearrangements. Limonoids family exhibits a Read More

Triterpene compounds constitute one of the major groups of plant secondary metabolites. They often occur as ingredients of daily diet or of herbal products used for therapeutic purposes. Each year many pharmacological activities of these compounds are described. This mini-review summarizes pharmacological properties of natural, non-glycosylated triterpenoids, that were reported over the past five years, with spe Read More

Saponins are ubiquitous plant natural products, essentially involved in plant defense against biotic stresses, with numerous pharmaceutical and agricultural applications. The common precursor for triterpenoid saponins is squalene (30 carbon molecule) which, via cationic intermediates, is oxidized to 2,3-oxidosqualene. After cyclization, the basic triterpenoid cyclic structure undergoes oxidation by monoxygenases and glyco Read More

Terpenoids and especially triterpenoids are the largest and the most diverse group of naturally occurring organic compounds. Its diversity plays very important role in new chemical entities activity screening against different disorders. Some of these compounds and their semi-synthetic derivatives can be identified as potential therapeutics against neurodegenerative diseases and were widely studied in the last few years. Read More

Evidence suggests that discovery of anti-inflammatory agents is driven by the search for bioactive compounds from natural products and synthetic chemicals. Triterpenoids are a wide-spread group of natural products and a polycyclic secondary metabolite in many terrestrial plants. In addition, their anti-inflammatory activity and action as immunomodulators has been demonstrated in many studies. Because of their various adv Read More

Oleanolic acid (OA) is a pentacyclic triterpenoid compound naturally found in plant kingdom. OA possesses several biological activities, which make it an interesting compound for scientists working in the field of pharmacy and new drugs design and development. The compound exhibits anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects in vitro and in vivo, which probably determine its dual function - cytoprotective and cytotoxic/cyt Read More

Betulin, betulinic acid and their derived compounds are important pentacyclic lupane-type triterpenoids and exhibit diversified pharmacological activities like anti-HIV, antitumor, antimycotic, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and immunomodulatory activities. Many new methods for the synthesis of potentially valuable betulin derived triterpenoids with potent bioactivity have been largely reported in the past few years. In Read More

Oleanolic acid (OA) is a natural pentacyclic triterpenoid acid with diverse biological activities including antiinflammation, suppression of tumor promotion, protection of the liver against toxic injury, and induction of differentiation. However, the potency of OA as an anti-cancer agent is relatively weak. Therefore, remarkable progress has been made in the modification of OA to improve its anti-cancer activity over the pa Read More

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) has been a widely studied green technology to obtain triterpenoids (TTs) enriched extracts from various vegetable matrices. This review covers research advances regarding the SFE of TTs, with emphasis on biomass sources, operating conditions and their optimization, and modeling. As in other applications of the supercritical technology, carbon dioxide is the common solvent adopted, Read More

This review aims to provide an overview of the biogenetic origin of triterpenic acids (with particular emphasis on ursolic, oleanolic and betulinic acids), on the analytical extraction and hyphenated methodologies (mainly GC-MS) used on their identification and quantification, followed by an overview of the major sources of these components, indicating their potential large scale production pathways, with especial emphasis Read More

Celastrol is a quinone methide triterpenoid extracted from the root bark of the Chinese medicine Tripterygium wilfordii with the most potent antitumor activity among the natural triterpenoids. Celastrol has the abilities to inhibit proliferation, induce apoptosis and suppress invasion and metastasis of tumor cells. Structure and activity analysis based on celastrol semi-synthetic derivatives revealed that the quinone methid Read More