Emerging threats to human health require a concerted
effort to
search for new treatment therapies. One of the biggest challenges
is finding medicines with few or no side effects. Natural products
have historically contributed to major advances in the field of pharmacotherapy,
as they offer special characteristics compared to conventional synthetic
molecules. Interest in natural products is being revitalized, in a
continuous search for lead structures that can be used as models for
the development of new medicines by the pharmaceutical industry. Chromone
and chromanones are recognized as privileged structures and useful
templates for the design of diversified therapeutic molecules with
potential pharmacological interest. Chromones and chromanones are
widely distributed in plants and fungi, and significant biological
activities, namely antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial,
antiviral, etc., have been reported for these compounds, suggesting
their potential as lead drug candidates. This review aims to update
the literature published over the last 6 years (2018–2023)
regarding the natural occurrence and biological activity of chromones
and chromanones, highlighting the recent findings and the perspectives
that they hold for future research and applications namely in health,
cosmetic, and food industries.