Abstract
Monoterpenes, comprising hydrocarbons, are the largest class of plant secondary metabolites and are commonly found in essential oils. Monoterpenes and their derivatives are key ingredients in the design and production of new biologically active compounds. This review focuses on selected aliphatic, monocyclic, and bicyclic monoterpenes like geraniol, thymol, myrtenal, pinene, camphor, borneol, and their modified structures. The compounds in question play a pivotal role in biological and medical applications. The review also discusses anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anticonvulsant, analgesic, antiviral, anticancer, antituberculosis, and antioxidant biological activities exhibited by monoterpenes and their derivatives. Particular attention is paid to the link between biological activity and the effect of structural modification of monoterpenes and monoterpenoids, as well as the introduction of various functionalized moieties into the molecules in question.
Highlights
Plants have been used for medical purposes for centuries
We focus on structural modifications of geraniol, thymol, myrtenal, pinene, camphor, and borneol; see Figure 2 for an overview
The results revealed that all the synthesized compounds exhibit notable antioxidant activity and molecular docking studies indicated that they are good inhibitors of heme oxygenase-1
Summary
Plants have been used for medical purposes for centuries. As such, they have been studied scientifically and traded commercially. We focus on structural modifications of geraniol (representative of acyclic monoterpenes), thymol (representative of monoterpene monocycles), myrtenal, pinene, camphor, and borneol (representatives of monoterpene bicycles); see Figure 2 for an overview We present those monoterpene derivatives that exhibit several important biological properties; they are often multifunctional or exhibit interesting biological selectivity in their activity. Despite the importance of this class of compounds, there are limited reviews on the biological and pharmacological properties of monoterpene derivatives [1,2,3,4,5,6].
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