Furanodienone: An Emerging Bioactive Furanosesquiterpenoid

This review surveys the literature published on the emerging biological properties of furanodienone. Furanodienone (FDN) (1) is a furanosesquiterpenoid belonging to the class of furanogermacranes. This class of secondary metabolites is usually not widespread as they are present only in Asteraceae, Apiaceae, Myrtaceae, Lauraceae, Zingiberaceae and Burseraceae. It is commonly isolated from several species of Curcuma and Commiphora. This compound was shown to have several interesting activities, e.g. anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and anticancer activity. Several in vitro and in vivo studies showed that FDN is able to inhibit several proinflammatory enzymes, such as COX and LOX, it decreases NO generation and reduces the production of proinflammatory cytokines. Furthermore, it is able to inhibit cell proliferation in different cancer cell lines, through the induction of apoptosis. Tested against several microorganism, FDN showed an antibacterial activity against Gram (+) and Gram (-) bacteria, an antifungal activity against pathogenic and phytopathogenic fungi, and an antiprotozoal activity against Trypanosoma brucei.