Chemical and pharmacological progress on usnic acid and its derivatives.

Author: Sha-Na WUKEN ¹ ; Shun-Gang JIAO ¹ ; Xin-Yao YANG ¹ ; Xiao-Li GAO ¹ ; Chang-Hai QU ¹ ; Qian ZHANG ¹ ; Chun-Sheng LIU ¹ ; Peng-Fei TU ¹ ; Xing-Yun CHAI ¹
Author Information

1. School of Chinese Materia Medica, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100102, China.
Publication Type:Journal Article
Keywords: chemical composition; lichens; pharmacological activity; structural modification; usnic acid; usnic analogues
MeSH: Benzofurans; chemistry; pharmacology; Biological Products; Lichens; chemistry
From: China Journal of Chinese Materia Medica 2018;43(19):3811-3821
CountryChina
Language:Chinese
Abstract: Usnic acid and its derivatives, a group of organic molecules with great importance, are characteristic to lichens, possessing pharmacological activities such as anti-virus, anti-bacteria, anti-humor, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and anaesthetic effects. Many of them have been widely used as medicine, but also bring side effects such as dermatitis and liver damages. In the past decades, great efforts by isolation, organic synthesis, and structure modification methods were put on discovery of UA derivatives with higher biological activities or less side effects. This paper describes herein the most progress on natural sources, isolation and structure elucidation, structural characteristics, synthesis and modification results, pharmacological activities and toxicities of UA and its derivatives, hopefully to provide valuable reference for further research.