Auraptene: a natural biologically active compound with multiple targets.

Auraptene is the most abundant prenyloxycoumarin that occurs in nature. It has been isolated from plants belonging to many genus of the Rutaceae family, comprising several edible fruits and vegetables. Although known for a long time, only in the last decade auraptene was seen to exert valuable pharmacological properties as orally active cancer chemopreventive, anti-bacterial, anti-protozoal, anti-fungal, anti-inflammatory, and anti-oxidant agent. The aim of this review is to examine in detail the in so far reported effects and what is known about the mechanism of action underlying the observed pharmacological activities of this secondary metabolite by means of a survey of the current literature in which auraptene has been reported as an inhibitor of key biological targets like metalloproteinases, glycoprotein P, PPARs, and several others.