Abstract

Medicinal insects play an important role in the treatment of refractory diseases due to their unique and rich pharmacological activities. However, compared to plants, microorganisms, and marine organisms, medicinal insects have been largely ignored. Some small molecules isolated from insects are known to have defensive effects, but their majority roles remain unknown. In-depth research on the small molecules of medicinal insects has been conducted in recent years. Then alkaloids, dopamine derivatives, nucleoside derivatives, and other components are obtained. Among them, dopamine derivatives are a unique class of components from medicinal insects. Thus, we present a comprehensive overview of chemical structures and biological activities of dopamine derivatives from some medicinal insects, which will bring more attention to other researchers for further chemical and biological investigations on the unique dopamine derivatives as well as medicinal insects.

Keywords: Medicinal insect, dopamine derivatives, chemical structure, biological activity, macromolecules, enantiomers.

Graphical Abstract