Abstract

Continuous efforts in the development of monoamine oxidase inhibitors prompted the search for effective strategies for the design of novel drugs candidate. Thankfully, nature often provides scaffolds useful for the promotion of novel exploitable chemical entities. In this regard, aurones (a class of uncommon flavonoids) and their structural related analogues may play an important role in the development of monoamine oxidase inhibitors. The target prediction of the simplest aurone (2- benzylidenebenzofuran-3(2H)-one) clearly suggests that this compound probably affects MAO (monoamine oxidase) enzymes, which is in accordance with the recently reported literature. The current chapter reports the recent discoveries involving aurones and their structurally related analogues as MAO inhibitors, describing detailed structure-activity relationships (SARs) for each subgroup of compounds.