Molecular diversity and biological activity of natural products from Indonesian moraceous plants

Moraceae is a large family consists of about sixty genera, including Morus, Artocarpus and Ficus, and over 1400 species. Plants of this family elaborate many interesting secondary metabolites, including prenylated flavonoid, arylbenzofuran, and stilbene derivatives. Prenylated flavonoids from plants in this family exhibit diverse biological activities, including inhibitory effect on arachidonate 5-lipoxygenase, antiplatelet, antibacterial and cytotoxic activities. As part of an ongoing search for novel natural products of plant origin with potential biological activity, a number of species of Artocarpus collected in Indonesia have been investigated. In this paper a brief review of our recent work on some of these species that has led to the isolation of a host of many types of prenylated flavonoids and their cytotoxic activity against murine leukemia P388 cell lines will be presented.