Drugs based on natural compounds: recent achievements and future perspectives

Abstract

In recent years, despite enormous efforts to develop new drugs by sophisticated approaches, there has also been a trend for rediscovery of natural products uses. In this context, new metabolites with unusual chemical structures and promising biological and pharmacological properties have inspired chemists in their synthetic approach searching for more potent and selective drugs. At the same time, the increasing awareness on prevention of common diseases such as atherosclerosis and cancer suggested an improvement of life style, including better diets by consumption of natural foods. These topics have been the focus of the Conference on Natural Products in Cancer Prevention and Therapy, 2nd Edition, a meeting hosted by the University of Naples ‘‘Federico II’’ on behalf of the Phytochemical Society of Europe. As chairman of the organizing committee, I have been very honoured and pleased by the large participation of over 120 scientists from 25 countries, not limited to Europe, but including also Africa, America and Asia. The aim of the congress was the presentation of recent results and the exchange of ideas in the field of natural products in cancer prevention and therapy, but also the discussion of new trends and general aspects of research in phytochemistry and medicinal chemistry. Higher plants continue to be the source of many new drugs used for a variety of diseases. This important matter has been discussed by Kinghorn and co-workers involved in a collaborative multi-institutional project directed towards the discovery of new antitumor agents. In their paper, opening this special issue, the isolation and characterization of new secondary metabolites from tropical plants is described together with data regarding their activity and selectivity for cancer cells. Some of these natural product lead candidates, discovered through bioactivity guided fractionation, are proposed as scaffolds for synthetic modifications to develop new potential anticancer agents. The article by Roussis and co-workers reports on the analysis of 46 different Pinus species, affording the identification of 161 metabolites, mainly volatiles, from the pine foliage oils. The work is a representative example of traditional extensive phytochemical research consisting of a comparative metabolomic characterization of plants aimed to find new compounds of potential pharmaceutical interest. Recent epidemiological studies reported that an increase of consumptions of Allium species reduce the risk of prostate and gastric cancers. This could be related to two main classes of compounds: the apolar sulfur compounds and the polar saponins, the latter being pungent and more stable during cooking. On this base, the third contribution by Lanzotti et al. reviewed the literature about the major volatile and non-volatile organic compounds of garlic and other Allium plants V. Lanzotti (&) Dipartimento di Agraria, University of Naples Federico II, Via Universita 100, 80055 Portici, Naples, Italy e-mail: lanzotti@unina.it