Diterpenes from the genus Xylopia

Abstract

The family Annonaceae, the largest family of the order Magnoliales, comprises about 130 genus and approximately 2300 species, distributed in the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Asia, Australia, Central and South America. In Brazil, this family is represented by approximately 27 genus and 290 species. Xylopia L. is one of the largest genus belonging to the Annonaceae family, comprising about 160 species, which are distributed mainly in the Brazilian cerrado. The main classes of secondary metabolites found in species of the genus Xylopia are alkaloids, flavonoids and diterpenes, the latter, in particular diterpenes trachylobanes, can be used as chemotaxonomic markers because in some species specificity. With purpose to contribute as a tool to the genus chemosystematics, this paper is a diterpenes review described in the literature, with a register of 73 substances since 1953, as well as the report of the biological activity potential performed by diterpenes of the genus Xylopia.