Structural Modifications on Natural-based Products: Synthetic Strategies and Biological Applications

Coumarins are a class of heterocyclic compounds present in a significant quantity in several plants. The simplest coumarin, a benzene ring fused with a pyran-2-one heterocycle, was first discovered in the 19th century and since then, due to the synthetic accessibility and the biological properties of its derivatives, has been playing an important role in the Medicinal Chemistry field. In fact, coumarins have been previously described as anticancer, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, enzymatic inhibitory and antioxidant agents.Another two interesting compounds found widely in nature are resveratrol derivatives and chalcones. Both families of compounds are known for having remarkable antioxidant activity, cardio- and neuroprotective effects, among other relevant biological properties. Therefore, we devised several synthetic strategies to incorporate these natural products in one compound, combining their potential as promising agents for the treatment of several illnesses. In our group, we have already synthesised multiple novel compounds incorporating into the coumarin scaffold the resveratrol or chalcones moieties with remarkable activities towards different pharmacological targets. In this work, we continue exploiting this strategy by incorporating different linkers at coumarin position 3, thus giving us a wide range of possibilities for new compounds.