Antimalarial Natural Products of Marine and Freshwater Origin

This review highlights recently discovered antimalarial natural products from marine and freshwater sources described in the literature from 2006 to 2008. The structures as well as bioactivities of compounds against the malaria parasites such as Plasmodium falciparum are discussed, including, for example, agelasine, xestoquinone, alisiaquinone, crambescidin, venturamide, dragomabin, gragonamide, viridamide, salinosporamide, chaetoxanthone, nodulisporacid, tumonoic acid, girolline, oroidin, nostocarboline, acrucyclamide, and microcylamide 7806 and its revised structure. Synthetic derivatives of natural products are presented including plakortin, isoaaptamine, curcuphenol, pseudopyronine, manzamine, and nostocarboline. Consequences of these discoveries for the development of novel natural product agents against malaria are discussed. (C) 2009 The Japan Chemical Journal Forum and Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Chem Rec 9: 187-198; 2009: Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI 10.1002/tcr.200900001