Natural Products Blog

Welcome to our latest NPR Issue number 4!

This issue starts with a Hot off the Press article where Robert Hill  cherry-picks 27 recent papers that cover different aspects of current developments in bioorganic chemistry and novel natural products such as dibelamcandal A from Belamcanda chinensis.

We then go to a review on carotenoids and their cleavage products where Michael Walter and Dieter Strack cover structural, molecular genetic and functional aspects of carotenoids and apocarotenoids alike.

Coran M. H. Watanabe and his colleagues tell us about the discovery and biological activity of the azinomycins, their mode of action, related synthetic analogs and biosynthesis, and finish with a discussion on the less studied metabolite, ficellomycin.

A very comprehensive review on the latest withanolide steroids reported until 2010 follows. Feng Qiu and co-workers discuss their diverse biological and pharmacological activities.

For those NPR readers who are more into pharmacology and medicinal chemistry, Grzegorz Bulaj‘s team talk about the advances toward developing systemically active and CNS-penetrant neuropeptide analogs. The provide an overview of structural and pharmacological properties and review the potential application of these natural products as drug leads for pain, epilepsy and other neurological diseases.

Gaelle Chouraqui and his research group focus on different methods to create simultaneously the spirolactone and the quaternary spiro stereocentre and their application to the synthesis of natural products.

Then a survey on the chemical, biological, and mycological literature dealing with the isolation, structural elucidation, biological activities, and synthesis of nitrogen-containing compounds by Ji-Kai Liu and colleagues.

Another one for our medchem readers. This one deals with natural products and Chagas’ disease. Take a look at Celso Vataru Nakamura‘s review.

And to finish off, Andrea Vasas and Judit Hohmann update us on naturally occurring xanthanes and xanthanolides.

That is all for Issue 4! We hope you enjoy it and find it interesting.