Jatropha Natural Products as Potential Therapeutic Leads

Natural products (NPs) are nature's evolutionarily product, containing complex and diverse molecular structures. For the past two decades, pharmaceutical companies have focused on developing targeted therapeutic agents by screening libraries of small synthetic molecules. However, recent development of new technologies that improve the extraction/characterization process as well as new synthetic methodologies that render NP derivatization possible have ignited a revival in the field of NPs. NPs are now being used as a rich repository for drug discovery. Here we review recent work on the bioactive NPs derived from Jatropha isabelli along with their corresponding derivatives. Most of these NPs are sesquiterpenoids with unique molecular architectures. They display activity against various disease models and therefore may offer early compound leads for drug discovery programs.