Abstract
There are abundant natural diterpenoids in the plants of the genus Daphne from the Thymelaeaceae family, featuring a 5/7/6-tricyclic ring system and usually with an orthoester group. So far, a total of 135 diterpenoids has been isolated from the species of the genus Daphne, which could be further classified into three main types according to the substitution pattern of ring A and oxygen-containing functions at ring B. A variety of studies have demonstrated that these compounds exert a wide range of bioactivities both in vitro and in vivo including anticancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-HIV, antifertility, neurotrophic, and cholesterol-lowering effects, which is reviewed herein. Meanwhile, the fascinating structure–activity relationship is also concluded in this review in the hope of providing an easy access to available information for the synthesis and optimization of efficient drugs.
Highlights
The genus Daphne Linn., with its ca. 95 species, is the most diverse genus in the Thymelaeaceae family [1]
None of the principles of these bioactivities had been identified until daphnetoxin was isolated as a major toxic principle from commercial “mezeron” bark which was made from Daphne mezereum L. and other Daphne species in 1970
Wu et al evaluated the effects of genkwadaphnin (15) on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells both in vitro and in vivo with Hep3B and PLC/PRF/5 cell lines and BALB/c nude mice, respectively, the results showed that genkwadaphnin (15) suppressed growth and invasion of HCC cells both in vitro and in vivo by blocking DHCR24-mediated cholesterol biosynthesis and lipid rafts formation [44]
Summary
The genus Daphne Linn., with its ca. 95 species, is the most diverse genus in the Thymelaeaceae family [1]. The species from the Thymelaeaceae are rich sources of 12-hydroxydaphnanetoxins, especially the genus Daphne Compounds of this class were mainly isolated from D. genkwa, D. tangutica, and D. acutiloba and these diterpenoids were abundant in the flower buds of D. genkwa, stems, roots, and especially bark of the plants (Table 1). There are less compounds from the genus Daphne belong to daphnetoxins than 12hydrodaphnetoxins including a 15,16-dihyrdo derivative tanguticahine (79) The archetype of this class is daphnetoxin (14), which was separated from the bark of D. mezereum for the first time [61] and later proved to exist in D. papyracea [13], D. giraldii [52], D. tangutica [25], and D. acutiloba [8] in chronological order (Figure 3 and Table 2). All compounds of this class were reported to occur in D. genkwa, and these compounds were isolated only from the flower (mostly buds) of D. genkwa [43,54,55,57,66,73] (Table 3)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
