Recent studies on rosmarinic acid and its biological and pharmacological activities.

‬

Rosmarinic acid (RA), an ester of caffeic acid and 3,4-dihydrophenyllactic acid (Figure 1(Fig. 1)), is a naturally occurring phenylpropanoid that is commonly found in species of the Boraginaceae family, the subfamily Nepetoideae of the Lamiaceae family, and in lower plants such as ferns and hornworts (Petersen and Simmonds, 2003[18]). RA was first isolated and purified in 1958 from Rosmarinus officinalis by two Italian chemists, Scarpati and Oriente, who then named it according to the plant that they isolated it from (Scarpati and Oriente, 1958[20]). The biosynthesis of RA has been extensively studied, and a biosynthetic pathway was first reported in 1970 by Ellis and Towers[9]. They demonstrated that two aromatic amino acids - L-tyrosine and L-phenylalanine - are the building blocks of rosmarinic acid (Ellis and Towers, 1970[9]).

Figure 1

Chemical structure of rosmarinic acid

RA has a range of biological activities, making it an interesting material for the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetics industries. Here we summarize key messages of recent studies performed on RA and its biological and pharmacological activities (Table 1(Tab. 1)).

Table 1

Key messages of recent studies performed on RA and its biological and pharmacological activities

References to Table 1:

Domitrovic et al., 2014[7]; Ozturk et al., 2014[17]; Chen et al., 2014[3]; Hasanein and Mohammad Zaheri, 2014[10]; Lucarini et al., 2013[16]; Sotnikova et al., 2013[22]; Kim et al., 2013[13]; Luan et al., 2013[15]; Yang et al., 2013[26]; Venkatachalam et al., 2013[23]; Karmokar et al., 2012[11]; Costa et al., 2012[5]; Chu et al., 2012[4]; Sharmila and Manoharan, 2012[21]; De Oliveira et al., 2012[6]; Wang et al., 2012[24]; Anusuya and Manoharan, 2011[1]; Karthik et al., 2011[12];; Aung et al., 2010[2]; Xu et al., 2010[25]; Sánchez-Campillo et al., 2009[19];Lee et al., 2008[14]; Dubois et al., 2008[8]

Acknowledgements

This project was supported by the Deanship of Scientific Research, College of Science Research Centre, King Saud University, P. O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.