Abstract

Artemisinin and its synthetic derivatives are widely used for antimalarial agents in the world. Moreover, they are discovered to additionally use as anticancer, antiangiogenesis, antiviral, immunosuppressive, and antifungal agents. Recent research results supported that it is a very promising field in drug discovery. In this review, it will discuss the structural and biological features of artemisinin and its derivatives that have published since 2003 except antimalarial, and show that they are useful lead compounds for novel drug discovery.

Keywords: Artemisinin, artemisinin derivatives, natural product, endoperoxide, lead compound, drug discovery