Extraction, Isolation, Characterization, and Bioactivity of Polypropionates and Related Polyketide Metabolites from the Caribbean Region

Abstract

The Caribbean region is a hotspot of biodiversity (i.e., algae, sponges, corals, mollusks, microorganisms, cyanobacteria, and dinoflagellates) that produces secondary metabolites such as polyketides and polypropionates. Polyketides are a diverse class of natural products synthesized by organisms through a biosynthetic pathway catalyzed by polyketide synthase (PKS). This group of compounds is subdivided into fatty acids, aromatics, and polypropionates such as macrolides, and linear and cyclic polyethers. Researchers have studied the Caribbean region to find natural products and focused on isolation, purification, structural characterization, synthesis, and conducting biological assays against parasites, cancer, fungi, and bacteria. These studies have been summarized in this review, including research from 1981 to 2020. This review includes about 90 compounds isolated in the Caribbean that meet the structural properties of polyketides. Out of 90 compounds presented, 73 have the absolute stereochemical configuration, and 82 have shown biological activity. We expect to motivate the researchers to continue exploring the Caribbean region’s marine environments to discover and investigate new polyketide and polypropionate natural products.

Biologically active secondary metabolites from white-rot fungi

“…These compounds exhibit diverse biological functions and result from metabolic reactions that are non-essential for growth and reproduction of organisms. The production of secondary metabolites provides a competitive advantage to the organism by increasing the tolerance to environmental stresses and extreme conditions, and thereby indirectly influencing ecological dynamics ( Devi and Krishnakumari, 2015 ; Daley et al, 2017 ; Thirumurugan et al, 2018 ; Conrado et al, 2022 ; Rodríguez-Berríos et al, 2023 ; Sharma et al, 2023 ). “Secondary metabolites” term was first introduced by the Nobel Prize laureate Albrecht Kossel in 1891 and the botanist Friedrich Czapek further created the term “secondary modifications” in his work related to plant nitrogen metabolism in the 1920s ( Henriksen et al, 2022 ).…”