Synthesis and evaluation of antiproliferative activity of a novel series of hydroxychavicol analogs

Flavored Food Additives on the Leaves of Piper betle L.: A Human Health Perspective

Natural products and traditional ethnomedicines are of great effect in therapeutics. Such types of medicine have been practiced in certain areas of the world to treat different health conditions. This pilot investigation aims to review the cumulative health effect of addendums used in betel quid such as areca nut, lime, and tobacco-associated betel quid chewing and without tobacco-associated chewing. This review shows that betel leaf extract and its essential oil could inhibit growth of microbes and damage different gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria as well as various fungus species. Some studies concluded that the combination of Piper leaves essential oil with antibiotics have potential effect on oral microorganisms. Long-term consumption of betel quid with tobacco is known to cause cancer, chromosomal aberrations, and pharynx tumors. However, consumption of betel leaf without tobacco has health benefits because of ethnomedicinal properties. Its essential is oil utilized as raw material for perfumes and mouth fresheners manufacturing. Scientific researches on this plant revealed that it possesses many beneficial activities to be used for developing novel drugs. However, compounds of betel leaves have beneficial natural antioxidant. Chewing and intake of leaves have effect on moving parts of salivary gland which is the main step of digestion. Its components also act as heartbeat regulators in relaxing the blood vessels to reduce hypertension. So this review discussed the natural compounds of betel leaves which is used as traditional medicine to further develop drug discovery.

Structural derivatization strategies of natural phenols by semi-synthesis and total-synthesis

Structural derivatization of natural products has been a continuing and irreplaceable source of novel drug leads. Natural phenols are a broad category of natural products with wide pharmacological activity and have offered plenty of clinical drugs. However, the structural complexity and wide variety of natural phenols leads to the difficulty of structural derivatization. Skeleton analysis indicated most types of natural phenols can be structured by the combination and extension of three common fragments containing phenol, phenylpropanoid and benzoyl. Based on these fragments, the derivatization strategies of natural phenols were unified and comprehensively analyzed in this review. In addition to classical methods, advanced strategies with high selectivity, efficiency and practicality were emphasized. Total synthesis strategies of typical fragments such as stilbenes, chalcones and flavonoids were also covered and analyzed as the supplementary for supporting the diversity-oriented derivatization of natural phenols.

Eugenol, a Promising Building Block for Biobased Polymers with Cutting-Edge Properties

Biobased materials, derived from biomass building blocks, are essential in the pursuit of sustainable materials. Eugenol, a natural phenol obtained from clove oil, but also from lignin depolymerization, possesses a chemical structure that allows its easy modification to obtain a broad and versatile platform of biobased monomers. In this Perspective, an overview of the variety of reactions that have been executed on the allylic double bond, phenol hydroxyl group, aromatic ring, and methoxy group is given, focusing our attention on those to obtain monomers suitable for different polymerization reactions. Furthermore, possible applications and perspectives on the eugenol-derived materials are provided.

Two new sesquiterpenes from the stems of Miliusa velutina

From the ethyl acetate extract of the stems of Miliusa velutina, seven compounds (1-7) were isolated, including two new compounds such as mivelutina A acid (1), mivelutina B acid (2) and one known compound mivelutina B methyl ester (3). For this NMR data were not known previously. Their relative structures were elucidated based on NMR spectroscopic analysis. The absolute configuartions were determined based on DFT calculations of ¹³C chemical shifts. All of the seven compounds were screened for their in vitro cytotoxic activities against HepG2 cell line using the SRB assay. Epoxyconiferyl alcohol (7) showed the highest potential for the cytotoxicity of cancer cell lines HepG2 with the IC₅₀ values of 95.94 μg/mL (527 μM).

Synthetic modification of hydroxychavicol by Mannich reaction and alkyne-azide cycloaddition derivatives depicting cytotoxic potential

Here we report the design, synthesis and lead optimization of hydroxychavicol (1) a high yielding metabolite ubiquitously present in the Piper betel leaves with the significant cytotoxic activity. This is the first report to describe the synthetic strategies of two distinct series of hydroxychavicol by Mannich reaction (2-10) and alkyne-azide cycloaddition (11-20). Furthermore, all the synthesized derivatives along with parent compound were evaluated for their in-vitro cytotoxic and antiproliferative potential in several distinct cancers cell lines. Among all, the Mannich reaction derived molecules 6, 8 and 10 displayed more potent cytotoxic activities with IC50 value in a range from 3 to 9 μM, which were 7-10 fold more potent than 1 against five human cancer cell lines viz. HL-60, Mia PaCa-2, MCF-7, HEP G2 and SK-N-SH. Our results describe an efficient synthetic approach used to evaluate the structure activity relationship of 1 and its derivative in search of potential new anticancer agents.