Isoxazole is an azole with an oxygen atom next to the nitrogen. Isoxazole rings are found in some natural products, such as ibotenic acid and also found in a number of drugs, including COX-2 inhibitor valdecoxib. Furoxan, a nitric oxide donor is containing isoxazolyl group and found in many β-lactamase resistant antibiotics, such as cloxacillin, dicloxacillin and flucloxacillin. The synthetic androgenic steroid danazol also has an isoxazole ring. The substituted isoxazoles are well developed in literature to possess significant biological activities. The disubstituted and trisubstituted isoxazoles have been reported to exhibit broad range of biological activities such as antimicrobial activity, analgesic activity, anti-inflammatory activity, antioxidant activity, anticancer activity, CNS (central nervous system) activity, antitubercular activity and miscellaneous activities like GABA (γ-amino butyric acid) agonistic activity, inhibitory activity, antihypertensive activity, and glutamate transporter activity. The present review summarizes up to date information of various biological activities of isoxazole analogs.

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