Research progress of Chinese herbal medicine compounds and their bioactivities: Fruitful 2020

Traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) have continued to be a treasure trove. The study of chemodiversity and versatility of bioactivities has always been an important content of pharmacophylogeny. There is amazing progress in the discovery and research of natural components with novel structures and significant bioactivities in 2020. In this paper we review 271 valuable natural products, including terpenoids, steroids, flavonoids, phenylpropanoids, phenolics, nitrogen containing compounds and essential oil, etc., isolated and identified from TCMs published in journals of Chinese Traditional and Herbal Drugs (Zhong Cao Yao) and Chinese Herbal Medicines (CHMs), and focus on their structures, source organisms, and relevant bioactivities, paying special attention to structural characteristics of novel compounds and newly revealed pharmacological properties of known compounds. It is worth noting that natural products with antitumor activity still constitute the primary object of research. Among the reported compounds, two new triterpenoids, i.e., ursolic acid 3-O-β-cis-caffeate and mollugoside E, display remarkable cytotoxicity against PC-9 and HL-60 cell lines, respectively. Three known phenolic compounds, i.e., pyoluteorin, 4-hydroxy-3-methoxy cinnamaldehyde and 3,7-dimethoxy-5-hydroxy-1,4-phenanthrenequinone, exhibit significant cytotoxicity against multiple cell lines. Numerous studies on the free radical scavenging activity of reported compounds are currently underway. In vitro, three known phenolic compounds, i.e., 3,4-O-dicaffeoylquinic acid methyl ester, 3,4,5-O-tricaffeoylquinic acid methyl ester and arbutin, had more considerable antioxidant activities than vitamin C. The anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, hypolipidemic, neuroprotective and antimicrobial activities of isolated compounds are also encouraging. The structural characteristics and bioactivities of TCM compounds highlighted here reflect the enormous progress of CHM research in 2020 and will play a positive role in the future drug discovery and development. According to pharmacophylogeny, the phylogenetic distribution of compounds with different natures and flavors can be explored, with view to better mining TCM resources.