Title:Bioactive Coumarins from Marine Sources: Origin, Structural Features and Pharmacological Properties
Volume: 15
Issue: 17
Author(s): Saleta Vazquez-Rodriguez, Maria Joao Matos, Fernanda Borges, Eugenio Uriarte and Lourdes Santana
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Biological activity, Coumarin derivatives, Heterocycles, Marine sources, Natural products.
Abstract: Nature is an ancient pharmacy that is largely used as an inspiring source for drug discovery
processes for the early eras. Several drugs used nowadays are of natural product origin or inspired on
the basis of natural product structures and approximately half of the 20 best-selling non-protein drugs
are related to natural products. However, a largely unexplored marine world that presumably harbors
the most biodiversity may be the vastest resource to discover compounds with remarkable biological
properties. Marine based drug discovery research has been mainly focused on crude extracts. The purpose
of this review is to summarize the findings reported in this area, particularly focuses on marine-derived coumarincontaining
compounds.
