Recent progress in chemistry and bioactivity of monoterpenoid indole alkaloids from the genus gelsemium: a comprehensive review

Abstract

Monoterpenoid indole alkaloids (MIAs) represent a major class of active ingredients from the plants of the genus Gelsemium. Gelsemium MIAs with diverse chemical structures can be divided into six categories: gelsedine-, gelsemine-, humantenine-, koumine-, sarpagine- and yohimbane-type. Additionally, gelsemium MIAs exert a wide range of bioactivities, including anti-tumour, immunosuppression, anti-anxiety, analgesia, and so on. Owing to their fascinating structures and potent pharmaceutical properties, these gelsemium MIAs arouse significant organic chemists’ interest to design state-of-the-art synthetic strategies for their total synthesis. In this review, we comprehensively summarised recently reported novel gelsemium MIAs, potential pharmacological activities of some active molecules, and total synthetic strategies covering the period from 2013 to 2022. It is expected that this study may open the window to timely illuminate and guide further study and development of gelsemium MIAs and their derivatives in clinical practice.

Graphical abstract

Keywords:

• Gelsemium genus
• monoterpenoid indole alkaloids
• new chemical structure
• synthetic chemistry
• biological activity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from Fund Project of Department of Science and Technology of Liaoning Province (No. 2022-YGJC-38), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82104349) and Natural Science Foundation of Liaoning Province (No. 2021-MS-361).