Tsakem Bienvenu, Ntie Kang Fidele, Teponno Rémy Bertrand, Siwe Noundou Xavier
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University Pretoria 0204 South Africa
Center for Drug Discovery, Faculty of Science, University of Buea P.O. Box 63 Buea Cameroon.
RSC Adv. 2025 Aug 18;15(34):27816-27847. doi: 10.1039/d5ra03457d. eCollection 2025 Aug 1.
Flavonoids refer to a large class of secondary metabolites with a unique skeleton comprising two aromatic rings linked together by a C unit. This class of compounds is largely distributed in plants and rarely occurs in fungi. Some of these compounds are directly bonded to prenyl units. Prenyl groups are C-5 carbon units derived from the mevalonate pathway, are reported to substantially improve the biological activities of diverse classes of secondary metabolites. Prenylated flavonoids display a broad spectrum of biological activities, including antibacterial, antioxidant, anticancer, antidiabetic and antiviral activities. Some flavonoids have already been formulated as either medicines or dietary supplements and are currently used in the management of certain medical conditions. The continuous search for bioactive molecules is a global concern; and encapsulating the contribution of each continent and/or country in terms of available resources should be a priority. This paper aims to methodically summarize the bioactive prenylated flavonoids characterized from plants of the genus growing in Africa, as well as their distribution in the genus. Approximately 289 prenylated flavonoids have been isolated and characterized exclusively from plants belonging to the genus growing in Africa, covering all the subclasses of flavonoids bearing prenyl group(s), namely, flavanones, flavones, chalcones, isoflavanones, isoflavones, isoflavans, isoflav-3-enes, pterocarpans and pterocarpenes isolated from 1981 to date. This review encompasses the data gathered from 202 peer-reviewed articles and covers the source, isolation, distribution of plant species throughout the continent, structure elucidation of prenyl moieties, biological activities as well as the tests where available towards some targets in drug discovery.
黄酮类化合物是指一大类次生代谢产物，其独特的骨架由通过一个C单元连接在一起的两个芳香环组成。这类化合物主要分布在植物中，在真菌中很少见。其中一些化合物直接与异戊烯基单元相连。异戊烯基是源自甲羟戊酸途径的C-5碳单元，据报道可显著提高各类次生代谢产物的生物活性。异戊烯基化黄酮类化合物具有广泛的生物活性，包括抗菌、抗氧化、抗癌、抗糖尿病和抗病毒活性。一些黄酮类化合物已经被制成药物或膳食补充剂，目前用于治疗某些疾病。持续寻找生物活性分子是全球关注的问题；根据可用资源总结各大洲和/或国家的贡献应是优先事项。本文旨在系统地总结从生长在非洲的该属植物中鉴定出的具有生物活性的异戊烯基化黄酮类化合物，以及它们在该属中的分布。迄今已从生长在非洲的该属植物中分离并鉴定出约289种异戊烯基化黄酮类化合物，涵盖了带有异戊烯基的黄酮类化合物的所有亚类，即从1981年至今分离出的黄烷酮、黄酮、查耳酮、异黄烷酮、异黄酮、异黄烷、异黄酮-3-烯、紫檀烷和紫檀烯。本综述涵盖了从202篇同行评议文章中收集的数据，涉及该属植物在整个非洲大陆的来源、分离、分布、异戊烯基部分的结构解析、生物活性以及在药物发现中针对某些靶点的可用测试。
