Applications of Sesquiterpene Lactones

Traditional or folk medicine relies heavily on the use of compounds-rich plants, like those of the Asteraceae family, of which many such species are commercially available in the form of herbal preparations. These are particularly rich in a wide range of natural terpenoids named sesquiterpene lactones that, in some cases, are considered the active principles of such therapeutic plants . Structurally speaking, sesquiterpene lactones are terpenes that have in common a basic structure of 15 carbons (thus the prefix sesqui-) resulting from biosynthesis involving three isoprene units with a cyclical structure along with a fused α-methylene-γ-lactone ring . Sesquiterpene synthases catalyze a common biosynthesis route for sesquiterpene lactones, based on the cyclization of farnesyl phosphate resulting from the 2-C-methyl-Derythritol-4-phosphate (MEP) and mevalonate (MVA) pathways of dimethylalyl diphosphate and isopentenyl diphosphate precursors in chloroplasts and cytosol, respectively . However, sesquiterpene lactones have very different chemical structures regarding the type and position of the substituents, as well as the size of the non-lactone ring . For this reason, in structural terms, sesquiterpene lactones are organized into several subclasses: eudesmanolide (a 6/6 bicyclic structure), guaianolide and pseudoguaianolide (both 5/7 bicyclic compounds), germacranolide (with a 10-membered ring) and xanthanolide (containing a non-cyclic carbon chain and a seven-membered ring) (Figure 1).