Psoralen or furocoumarin is a linear three ring heterocyclic compound. Psoralens
are planar, tricyclic compounds, consisting of a furan ring fused to a coumarin moiety.
Psoralen has been known for a wide spectrum of biological activities, spanning from cytotoxic,
photosensitizing, insecticidal, antibacterial to antifungal effect. Thus, several structural
changes were introduced to explore the role of specific positions with respect to the
biological activity. Convenient approaches utilized for the synthesis of psoralen skeleton
can be categorized into two parts: (i) the preparation of the tricyclic ring system from resorcinol,
(ii) the exocyclic modification of the intact ring system. Furthermore, although
psoralens have been used in diverse ways, we mainly focus in this work on their clinical
utility for the treatment of psioraisis, vitiligo and skin-related disorder.