Chemical Constituents and Pharmacological Activity of Agarwood and Aquilaria Plants
1
Key Laboratory of Bioactive Substances and Resources Utilization of Chinese Herbal Medicine, Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100193, China
2
Ministry of Education & National Engineering Laboratory for Breeding of Endangered Medicinal Materials, Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100193, China
3
Conservation and Development of Southern Medicine, Hainan Branch of the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Haikou 570311, China
4
Key Laboratory of State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine for Agarwood Sustainable Utilization, Hainan Branch of the Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Haikou 570311, China
5
Pharmacology and Toxicology Center, Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100193, China
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Molecules 2018, 23(2), 342; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules23020342
Received: 10 January 2018
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Revised: 28 January 2018
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Accepted: 31 January 2018
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Published: 7 February 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biological Activity of Secondary Metabolites)
Agarwood, a highly precious non-timber fragrant wood of Aquilaria spp. (Thymelaeaceae), has been widely used in traditional medicine, religious rites, and cultural activities. Due to the inflated demanding and depleted natural resources, the yields of agarwood collected from the wild are shrinking, and the price is constantly rising, which restricts agarwood scientific research and wide application. With the sustainable planting and management of agarwood applied, and especially the artificial-inducing methods being used in China and Southeast Asian countries, agarwood yields are increasing, and the price is becoming more reasonable. Under this condition, illuminating the scientific nature of traditional agarwood application and developing new products and drugs from agarwood have become vitally important. Recently, the phytochemical investigations have achieved fruitful results, and more than 300 compounds have been isolated, including numerous new compounds that might be the characteristic constituents with physiological action. However, no one has focused on the new compounds and presented a summary until now. Alongside phytochemical advances, bioactivity screening and pharmacological investigation have also made a certain progress. Therefore, this review discussed the new compounds isolated after 2010, and summarized the pharmacological progress on agarwood and Aquilaria plants.
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Keywords:
agarwood; Aquilaria plants; chemical constitutes; bioactive compounds; pharmacological function
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MDPI and ACS Style
Wang, S.; Yu, Z.; Wang, C.; Wu, C.; Guo, P.; Wei, J. Chemical Constituents and Pharmacological Activity of Agarwood and Aquilaria Plants. Molecules 2018, 23, 342. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules23020342
AMA Style
Wang S, Yu Z, Wang C, Wu C, Guo P, Wei J. Chemical Constituents and Pharmacological Activity of Agarwood and Aquilaria Plants. Molecules. 2018; 23(2):342. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules23020342
Chicago/Turabian StyleWang, Shuai, Zhangxin Yu, Canhong Wang, Chongming Wu, Peng Guo, and Jianhe Wei. 2018. "Chemical Constituents and Pharmacological Activity of Agarwood and Aquilaria Plants" Molecules 23, no. 2: 342. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules23020342
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