Euphormins A and B, New Pyranocoumarin Derivatives from Euphorbia formosana Hayata, and Their Anti-Inflammatory Activity

Systematic review of natural coumarins in plants (2019-2024): Chemical structures and pharmacological activities

Coumarins constitute one of the most substantial classes of secondary metabolites, characterised by a fundamental α-benzopyranone skeleton, which serves as an overarching nomenclature for o-hydroxycinnamyl lactone moieties. These chemical constituents are widely distributed in various plant species. Based on the nature and loci of their substituents, these compounds can be further classified into simple coumarins, furanocoumarins, pyranocoumarins, isocoumarins, biscoumarins and other coumarins. Contemporary pharmacological research has revealed that coumarins exhibit a spectrum of properties, including antibacterial, antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory and hypoglycaemic activities. Owing to their diverse of structures and pharmacological actions, coumarins are widely used in cuisine, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. An extensive body of scholarly literature has been produced in this domain, although a notable paucity in the compilation and updating of references has been identified since 2019. Herein, the chemical structures and pharmacological activities of coumarins reported for the first time between 2019 and 2024 were systematically summarised. In total, 220 scholarly articles involving 574 coumarins reported for the first time in plants were included in this review. In addition, the biosynthetic pathways of some common types of coumarins (simple coumarins, furanocoumarins, and pyranocoumarins) are also preliminarily summarised in this paper. Meticulously analyzing and synthesising the published literature will lay a solid foundation for further investigation and extensive utilisation of coumarin derivatives.

Sweet flavor compounds produced by the endophytic fungus Talaromyces funiculosus

In this study, a sweet flavor producing endophytic fungus YN-F1 was screened and identified as Talaromyces funiculosus. The PDB broth of YN-F1 possessed strong sweet aroma together with fruity and floral flavors. The key flavor compounds were determined as 4-methyl-5,6-dihydropyran-2-one, 4-hydroxy-4-methyltetrahydro-2H-pyran-2-one, 2-phenylethanol, and 2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)ethanol. The key flavor metabolite 4-methyl-5,6-dihydropyran-2-one was further isolated and identified by NMR and MS. Sensory evaluation suggested this compound exhibited strong sweet aroma with floral flavor. 4-Methyl-5,6-dihydropyran-2-one possessed a relatively strong binding energy with TAS1R2 of - 4.9 kcal/mol, and hydrogen bond sites of THR-A-796 and ASN-A-799 could be important since the binding energy could be mainly dominated by the hydrogen bond interaction. This is the first report of flavor producing ability and characteristic flavor compounds for the endophytic fungus T. funiculosus.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10068-024-01694-x.

Anti-Inflammatory and Cytotoxic Compounds Isolated from Plants of Euphorbia Genus

Euphorbia is a large genus of the Euphorbiaceae family. Around 250 species of the Euphorbia genus have been studied chemically and pharmacologically; different compounds have been isolated from these species, especially diterpenes and triterpenes. Several reports show that several species have anti-inflammatory activity, which can be attributed to the presence of diterpenes, such as abietanes, ingenanes, and lathyranes. In addition, it was found that some diterpenes isolated from different Euphorbia species have anti-cancer activity. In this review, we included compounds isolated from species of the Euphorbia genus with anti-inflammatory or cytotoxic effects published from 2018 to September 2023. The databases used for this review were Science Direct, Scopus, PubMed, Springer, and Google Scholar, using the keywords Euphorbia with anti-inflammatory or cytotoxic activity. In this review, 68 studies were collected and analyzed regarding the anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer activities of 264 compounds obtained from 36 species of the Euphorbia genus. The compounds included in this review are terpenes (95%), of which 68% are diterpenes, especially of the types ingenanes, abietanes, and triterpenes (approximately 15%).