Cancer will be the major cause of death in the 21st century and natural products should provide novel and more effective anticancer agents. This review deals with new natural molecules liable to become anticancer drugs, as well as recent specific strategies for a selective treatment of cancer. The introduction presents the current state of the art on anticancer research. Beside, in the following subheadings we summarize our research on cytotoxic natural quinone methide-triperpenes and their analogues. We also discuss our results on the anti-tumour promoting activity of natural naphthoquinones and their derivatives.

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Two novel tropolone derivatives 1 and 2 have been isolated from Goupia glabra. Their structures were determined by extensive 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopic studies. Compound 2 constitutes the first example isolated from a natural source of a Diels−Alder adduct between a tropolone and a naphthalene derivative. Compounds 1 and 2 exhibit significant toxicity towards a panel of DNA damage checkpoint defective yeast mutants, and behave as genotoxins, which highlights their potential to be used as anticancer drugs. (© Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Germany, 2003)

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