Synthesis, Study and Utilization of Natural Products

Natural products and the preparations based on them play a stable and ever-increasing role in human and veterinary medicine, agriculture, in food and the cosmetic industry, and in an increasing number of other fields. Their importance is based on the fact that they are mostly bound to renewable sources, which in fact makes them valuable within a circular economy, inter alia. At the same time, natural products provide the origin of stereochemistry, optical activity, regioselectivity, chirality, and many other concepts and directions within science, development, and industry in a scope, which is indispensable. They serve as a constant powerful stimulus and model that inspires researchers to create new effective tools, similar to natural ones, for controlling bioregulation mechanisms and solving practical problems. This was the reason for organizing this Special Issue aimed at underlining the current developments in all the fields connected to natural products

Terpene Research Is Providing New Inspiration for Scientists

This current Special Issue of Molecules gathers selected communications on terpenes and terpene derivatives, clearly demonstrating the sustained interest in and importance of natural products in this field; fields connected to secondary metabolites; and renewable resources of plant and animal compounds for medicinal, material, supramolecular, and general chemistry research [...

Growing Importance of Natural Products Research

Natural products and preparations based on them play a stable and ever-increasing role in human and veterinary medicine, agriculture, in food and the cosmetic industry, and in other increasing numbers of fields [...

Succinobucol's New Coat - Conjugation with Steroids to Alter Its Drug Effect and Bioavailability

Synthesis, detailed structural characterization (X-ray, NMR, MS, IR, elemental analysis), and studies of toxicity, antioxidant activity and bioavailability of unique potent anti-atherosclerotic succinobucol-steroid conjugates are reported. The conjugates consist of, on one side, the therapeutically important drug succinobucol ([4-{2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-[(1-{[3-tert-butyl-4-hydroxy-5-(propan-2-yl)phenyl]sulfanyl}ethyl)sulfanyl]phenoxy}-4-oxo-butanoic acid]) possessing an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity, and on the other side, plant stanol/sterols (stigmastanol, β-sitosterol and stigmasterol) possessing an ability to lower the blood cholesterol level. A cholesterol-succinobucol prodrug was also prepared in order to enhance the absorption of succinobucol through the intestinal membrane into the organism and to target the drug into the place of lipid metabolism—The enterohepatic circulation system. Their low toxicity towards mice fibroblasts at maximal concentrations, their antioxidant activity, comparable or even higher than that of ascorbic acid as determined by direct quenching of the DPPH radical, and their potential for significantly altering total and LDL cholesterol levels, suggest that these conjugates merit further studies in the treatment of cardiovascular or other related diseases. A brief discussion of succinobucol’s ability to quench the radicals, supported with a computational model of the electrostatic potential mapped on the electron density surface of the drug, is also presented.peerReviewe