Emerging threats to human health require a concerted effort to search for new treatment therapies. One of the biggest challenges is finding medicines with few or no side effects. Natural products have historically contributed to major advances in the field of pharmacotherapy, as they offer special characteristics compared to conventional synthetic molecules. Interest in natural products is being revitalized, in a continuous search for lead structures that can be used as models for the development of new medicines by the pharmaceutical industry. Chromone and chromanones are recognized as privileged structures and useful templates for the design of diversified therapeutic molecules with potential pharmacological interest. Chromones and chromanones are widely distributed in plants and fungi, and significant biological activities, namely antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antiviral, etc., have been reported for these compounds, suggesting their potential as lead drug candidates. This review aims to update the literature published over the last 6 years (2018-2023) regarding the natural occurrence and biological activity of chromones and chromanones, highlighting the recent findings and the perspectives that they hold for future research and applications namely in health, cosmetic, and food industries.

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Inflammation caused by microglial activation is important in neurodegenerative diseases. In this research, we tried to identify safe and effective anti-neuroinflammatory agents by screening a natural compounds library and found that Ergosterol can inhibit the nuclear factor kappa-light-chain enhancer of the activated B cells (NF-κB) pathway induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in microglia cells. Ergosterol has been reported to be an effective anti-inflammatory agent. Nevertheless, the potential regulatory role of Ergosterol in neuroinflammatory responses has not been fully investigated. We further investigated the mechanism of Ergosterol that regulates LPS-induced microglial activation and neuroinflammatory reactions both in vitro and in vivo. The results showed that Ergosterol can significantly decrease the pro-inflammatory cytokines induced by LPS in BV2 and HMC3 microglial cells, possibly by inhibiting the NF-κB, protein kinase B (AKT), and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways. In addition, we treated Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice with a safe concentration of Ergosterol following LPS injection. Ergosterol treatment significantly decreased microglial activation-associated ionized calcium-binding adapter molecule-1 (IBA-1), NF-κB phosphorylation, and pro-inflammatory cytokine levels. Moreover, Ergosterol pretreatment clearly reduced LPS-induced neuron damage by restoring the expression of synaptic proteins. Our data may provide insight into possible therapeutic strategies for neuroinflammatory disorders.

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A flavone, chrysoeriol is synthetized in several plant species. It comes from several natural sources, especially medicinal plants. The identification and isolation of this compound has been carried out and verified by several research teams using different spectral methods. It seems that the concentration of this molecule is variable and fluctuating depending on the source, the part extracted, the region, and the methods of extraction and characterization. The aim of this paper is to highlight the in vitro and in vivo pharmacological properties of chrysoeriol and to provide insight into its pharmacokinetics. Anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-osteoporosis, anti-insecticide, and neuroprotective actions have been shown in a number of studies on this chemical. Different mechanisms in theses pharmacological effects include subcellular, cellular, and molecular targets. In vivo pharmacokinetic analysis has proved the good stability of this molecule, showing its promising potential to prevent or treat diseases including cancer, diabetes, inflammation, osteoporosis, Parkinson's disease, and cardiovascular diseases.

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Meroterpenoids are secondary metabolites formed due to mixed biosynthetic pathways which are produced in part from a terpenoid co-substrate. These mixed biosynthetically hybrid compounds are widely produced by bacteria, algae, plants, and animals. Notably amazing chemical diversity is generated among meroterpenoids via a combination of terpenoid scaffolds with polyketides, alkaloids, phenols, and amino acids. This review deals with the isolation, chemical diversity, and biological effects of 452 new meroterpenoids reported from natural sources from January 2016 to December 2020. Most of the meroterpenoids possess antimicrobial, cytotoxic, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, enzyme inhibitory, and immunosupressive effects.

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Plants belonging to the genus Hypericum (Hypericaceae) are recognized as an abundant source of natural products with interesting chemical structures and intriguing biological activities. In the course of our continuing study on constituents of Hypericum plants, aiming at searching natural product-based lead compounds for therapeutic agents, we have isolated more than 100 new characteristic metabolites classified as prenylated acylphloroglucinols, meroterpenes, ketides, dibenzo-1,4-dioxane derivatives, and xanthones including prenylated xanthones, phenylxanthones, and xanthonolignoids from 11 Hypericum plants and one Triadenum plant collected in Japan, China, and Uzbekistan or cultivated in Japan. This review summarizes their chemical structures and biological activities.

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