Acetylcholinesterase and antioxidant evaluation of C18-functionalized ferruginol analogues

Nearly 200 years ago, the study of the chemistry of terpenoids started with the analysis of turpentine oil, investigating the first resin acid, abietic acid from pine oleoresin.[1] Abietic acid occurs in plants of the genus Abies and is the first member of a class of plant metabolites, the abietane-type diterpenoids. They are characterized by a tricyclic ring system and have shown a wide range of chemical diversity and biological activity. [2,3] Medicinal chemists have studied derivatives of two readily available materials such as dehydroabietic acid and dehydroabietylamine. [3] To date, there is only one commercial drug, Ecabet® [ecabet sodium], based on abietanes, which is used for the tr…