Current knowledge on chemistry of Proteaceae family, and biological activities of their bis-5-alkylresorcinol derivatives

The present review details in a first part the structures of secondary metabolites discovered in Proteaceae up to now. In a second part, biological activities of bis-5-alkylresorcinols, a typical group of metabolites from Proteaceae, and their cyclized analogues are summarized. The scientific data required to make the inventory were exclusively compiled from books and journals. Using the list of plant genus, the bibliographic references were collected from (i) The Dictionary of Natural Products (DNP) and (ii) SciFinder Chemical abstract services. More than 130 references were carefully analyzed to found about 327 secondary metabolites. The most important classes of metabolites in Proteaceae were found as phenol glycosides (31%), derivatives of 5-alkylresorcinols (30%) and tropane alkaloids (11%).