Abstract
The search for new bioactive compounds from plant sources has been and continues to be one of the most important fields of research in drug discovery. However, Natural Products research has continuously evolved, and more and more has gained a multidisciplinary character. Despite new developments of methodologies and concepts, one intriguing aspect still persists, i.e., different species belonging to the same genus can produce different secondary metabolites, whereas taxonomically different genera can produce the same compounds. The genus Salvia L. (Family Lamiaceae) comprises myriad distinct medicinal herbs used in traditional medicine worldwide that show different pharmacological activities due to the presence of a variety of interesting specialized metabolites, including mono-, sesqui-, di-, sester-, tri-, tetra-, and higher terpenoids as well as phenylpropanoids, phenolic acid derivatives, lignans, flavonoids, and alkaloids. We herein summarize the research progress on some uncommon terpenoids, isolated from members of the genus Salvia, which are well recognized for their potential pharmacological activities. This review also provides a current knowledge on the biosynthesis and occurrence of some interesting phytochemicals from Salvia species, viz. C23-terpenoids, sesterterpenoids (C25), dammarane triterpenoids (C30), and uncommon triterpenoids (C20+C10). The study was carried out by searching various scientific databases, including Elsevier, ACS publications, Taylor and Francis, Wiley Online Library, MDPI, Springer, Thieme, and ProQuest. Therefore, 106 uncommon terpenoids were identified and summarized. Some of these compounds possessed a variety of pharmacological properties, such as antibacterial, antiviral, antiparasitic, cytotoxic and tubulin tyrosine ligase inhibitory activities. Due to the lack of pharmacological information for the presented compounds gathered from previous studies, biological investigation of these compounds should be reinvestigated.
Highlights
The genus Salvia L., commonly known as “sage”, is one of the largest genera of the family Lamiaceae/Labiatae comprising over 1000 species worldwide
The outlined examples highlight that plants of the genus Salvia are an interesting source for compounds with novel and unique scaffolds for further development as drug leads
This review covers 106 terpenoids from members of the genus Salvia and some proposed biosynthetic pathways, biological and pharmacological activities have been less considered due to the shortcoming in information regarding the biological properties obtained from previous studies
Summary
The genus Salvia L., commonly known as “sage”, is one of the largest genera of the family Lamiaceae/Labiatae (subfamily Nepetoideae, tribe Mentheae) comprising over 1000 species worldwide. Some species of Salvia exhibit interesting pharmacological activities such as anti-Alzheimer’s and cognitive-enhancing (S. miltiorrhiza [10], S. officinalis [11], and S. lavandulaefolia [12]); antidepressant (S. sclarea [13] and S. elegans [14]); cardiovascular A great diversity of Salvia plants, combined with their phytochemical richness, has attracted attention of researchers to discover new pharmacologically active compounds with novel scaffolds. Salvia species are more likely to provide many lead structures that can be exploited as templates for the construction of a variety of compounds with enhanced pharmacological properties and less toxicity. The following subsections of this review will cover C23-terpenoids, sesterterpenoids (C25), dammarane-type triterpenoids (C30), and uncommon triterpenoids (C20+C10), discussing their structural features as well as biological/pharmacological activities where available. The databases used to search for the keywords and terpenoid compounds were PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google Scholar
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