Family Juncaceae: promising source of biologically active natural phenanthrenes

Abstract

Phenanthrenes represent a relatively small group of aromatic secondary metabolites, which can be divided into three main subgroups (mono-, di-, and triphenanthrenes). Phenanthrenes are reported as an intensively researched field in phytochemistry according to their structural diversity and promising biological activities. Because of their limited occurrence phenanthrenes are considered to be as important taxonomic markers. Juncaceae is a relatively large plant family divided into seven genera of which Juncus and Luzula are the most important ones from phytochemical and pharmacological points of view. To date, almost one hundred natural phenanthrenes have been isolated but only from eight (Juncus acutus, J. effusus, J. inflexus, J. maritimus, J. roemerianus, J. setchuensis, J. subulatus, and Luzula luzuloides) Juncaceae species, including mono-, and diphenanthrenes, and phenanthrene glucosides. Great deal of the isolated compounds are substituted with a vinyl group. This substitution is characteristic exclusively to Juncaceae species. Juncusol (2) was isolated from every investigated species. The richest source of phenanthrenes, as well as the most extensively investigated species is J. effusus. Several isolated compounds possessed different biological activities, e.g.antiproliferative, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, spasmolytic, anxiolytic, and antialgal effects. Among them, dehydroeffusol (60) is the most promising one, as it showed antimicrobial, anxiolytic, sedative, spasmolytic, cellular protective and antiproliferative activities. The aim of this review is to summarize the occurrence of phenanthrenes in the family Juncaceae, and give a comprehensive overview of their isolation, structural characteristics and biological activities.

Anti-Inflammatory and Cytotoxic Potential of New Phenanthrenoids from Luzula sylvatica

“…Plants belonging to this family are widespread all around the world, the Juncus and Luzula genera grow in both hemispheres, generally in badly drained soils. Several studies described the use of Juncaceae species for the traditional treatment of dysuria, fidgetiness, irritability, insomnia, and inflammation [1]. In China, J. inflexus is commonly used for its sedative effect, as J. effusus and J. conglomeratus are used for skin diseases [2,3] in the Basque region.…”

“…Such constituents are scarcely distributed in the plant kingdom and have mainly been reported in the Orchidaceae [11] and the Combretacae families [12,13]. Regarding Juncaceae, most of the chemical studies focused on the Juncus genus leading to the identification of more than 100 phenanthrenoids [1]. Even if a large variety of phenanthrenoids have been described, most of them possess a phenanthrene or a 9,10-dihydrophenanthrene backbone, often substituted at positions 2, 5 and 7 with hydroxyl, methyl, or vinyl groups.…”

Antiproliferative Phenanthrenes from Juncus tenuis: Isolation and Diversity-Oriented Semisynthetic Modification

“…Besides flavonoids, phenanthrenes are the main bioactive constituents of the Juncaceae species [ 4 ]. To date, more than one hundred phenanthrenes have been isolated from ten Juncus species ( J. acutus , J. atratus , J. compressus , J. effusus , J. gerardii , J. inflexus , J. maritimus , J. roemerianus , J. setchuensis , and J. subulatus ) [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 ]. Some Juncus species are extremely rich sources of phenanthrenes; for example, from J. effusus , 58 compounds were reported in previous studies.…”

“…Some Juncus species are extremely rich sources of phenanthrenes; for example, from J. effusus , 58 compounds were reported in previous studies. Since various Juncus phenanthrenes are substituted with a vinyl group, such compounds are considered to be important chemotaxonomic markers of the genus [ 5 , 9 ].…”

Co‐culture of shrimp with commercially important plants: a review

“…Moreover, J. roemerianus is an important source of natural phenanthrenes (Bús et al . 2018). Biosolids from shrimp culture improved the growth in J. roemerianus , meanwhile in S. alterniflora growth was not enhanced significantly.…”