Long chain aliphatic hydroxy ketones isolated from biological active plant sources during last 50 Years

Abstract

Over the years, the biological activities of medicinal plants and their compounds have gained considerable research interest due to their specific functional compounds, The novel long chain aliphatic hydroxyl ketones reported from medicinal plants over the past years are increasingly being recognized as new active compounds. The extraction of such active compounds has also attracted special attention recent years. Potent biologically active long chain aliphatic hydroxy ketones, from medicinal plants have been shown to play significant role towards prevention of degenerative diseases such as cancer, inflammation, arthritis, diabetes, parkinson’s disease, alzheimer’s disease, and certain other neurodegenerative disorders. The novel chemical entities drived from medicinal plants as active components for can be used in many industrial applications such as functional foods, pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals. This review intends to explore such thirty eight long chain aliphatic hydroxy ketones isolated from twenty one different medicinal plants during last fifty years (1960 – 2010) for their possible application as anticancer, antimicrobial and antioxidant activities.