Nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA) is a plant lignan obtained from creosote bush, Larrea
tridentata and is known to possess antioxidant, anticancer activities and is used in traditional medicine
in North America and Mexico. However, its prolonged consumption leads to liver damage and
kidney dysfunction. Despite its toxicity and side effects, there is little awareness to forbid its consumption
and its use in the treatment of medical ailments has continued over the years. Several reports
discuss its therapeutic efficiency and its medical applications have tremendously been on the
rise to date. There has been a recent surge of interest in the chemical synthesis of NDGA derivatives
for therapeutic applications. NDGA derivatives have been developed as better alternatives to
NDGA. Although several NDGA derivatives have been chemically synthesized as evidenced by recent
literature, there is a paucity of information on their therapeutic efficacies. This review is to
highlight the medicinal applications of NDGA, its toxicity evaluations and discuss the chemical derivatives
of NDGA synthesized and studied so far and suggest to continue research interests in the
development of NDGA analogs for therapeutic applications. We suggest that NDGA derivatives
should be investigated more in terms of chemical synthesis with preferred conformational structures
and exploit their biological potentials with future insights to explore in this direction to design and
develop structurally modified NDGA derivatives for potential pharmacological properties.
Crocetin and related oxygen
diffusion‐enhancing
compounds: Review of chemical synthesis, pharmacology, clinical development, and novel therapeutic applications
