Coumarins in the Rutaceae

Cytotoxic naphthoquinones and plumbagic acid glucosides from Plumbago zeylanica.

Over the past 150 years, since Vogel in 1820 isolated the parent oxygen heterocycle, coumarin (1) from Coumarouna odorata = Dipteryx odorata (1), coumarins have been recognized as widely distributed plant products. The vast majority carry an oxygen substituent at C-7; consequently 7-hydroxycoumarin [umbelliferone, (2)], one of the most widely distributed coumarins, is often regarded as the parent, in a structural sense and also biogenetically, of a large number of the structurally more complex coumarins. A number of review articles on natural plant coumarins have appeared (154, 302, 344, 420, 525, 541, 548) since the last in this series (153), the most comprehensive, albeit dealing solely with coumarins of the Umbelliferae, being that of Nielsen in 1970 (419).

M.N.S. Nayar

Papers

Coumarins and other constituents of Hesperethusa crenulata