ABSTRACT
This article reviews the excited-state quenching, pro-vitamin A activity and anticarcinogenicity of carotenes and xanthophylls in relation to their chemical structures. Excited-state quenching improved with the length of the conjugated chain structure. Pro-vitamin A activity was dependent on the presence of at least one beta-ionyl ring structure. The effectiveness of carotenoids as antioxidants depended on their ability to trap peroxyl radicals with production of resonance-stabilized carotenyl radicals. The products identified from oxidations of carotenes and xanthophylls with molecular oxygen and other oxidizing agents are presented. The free radical-mediated mechanisms that have been proposed to account for the different classes of products are reviewed.
Subject(s)
Carotenoids/chemistry , Free Radicals/chemistry , Xanthophylls/chemistry , Animals , Antioxidants/chemistry , Carcinogenesis/pathology , Humans , Oxidation-ReductionABSTRACT
Surpassing heart diseases, cancer is taking the lead as the deadliest disease because of its fast rate of spreading in all parts of the world. Tireless commitment to searching for novel therapeutic medicines is a worthwhile adventure in synthetic chemistry because of the drug resistance predicament and regular outbreak of new diseases due to abnormal cell growth and proliferation. Medicinal chemistry researchers and pharmacists have unveiled quinoxaline templates as precursors of importance and valuable intermediates in drug discovery because they have been established to possess diverse pharmacological potentials. Hence, this review highlights the current versatile routes to accessing functionalized quinoxaline motifs and harnessing their documented therapeutic potentials for anticancer drug development.
