<i>γ</i>‐Aromatic Butenolides of Microbial Source – A Review of Their Structures, Biological Activities and Biosynthesis
Hao Fan, Xia Wei, Mei‐Xia Si‐Tu, Yan‐Hu Lei, Feng‐Guo Zhou, Cui‐Xian Zhang
Abstract
γ-Aromatic butenolides (γ-AB) are an important type of structures found in many bioactive microbial secondary metabolites (SMs). γ-AB refer to a group of natural products (NPs) containing five-membered (unsaturated) lactones with 3-phenyl and 4-benzyl substituents. Their wide-range biological activities have inspired pharmaceutical chemists to explore its biosynthesis mechanisms and design strategies to construct the γ-AB skeleton. Recently, there are a great deal of interesting research progress on the structures, biological activities and biosynthesis of γ-AB. This review will focus on these aspects and summarize the important achievements of γ-AB from 1975 to 2021.