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7-Isopentenyloxycoumarin is among the most widespread naturally occurring prenyloxy umbelliferone derivatives. This secondary metabolite of mixed biosynthetic origin has been typically isolated from plants belonging to several genera of the Rutaceae and Apiaceae families, comprising widely used medicinal plants and in general plants with beneficial effects on human welfare, as well as edible fruits and vegetables. Although known for quite a long time (more than 50 years), only in the last two decades has this natural compound been revealed to exert powerful and promising pharmacological properties, such as active cancer chemopreventive, antibacterial, antiprotozoal, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, and antioxidant properties, among the activities best outlined in the recent literature. The aim of this comprehensive miniature review article is to detail the novel natural sources and the effects described during the last decade for 7-isopentenyloxycoumarin and what has been reported on the mechanisms of action underlying the observed biological activities of this oxyprenylated secondary metabolite. In view of the herein described data, suggestions on how to address future research on the abovementioned natural product and structurally related derivatives in the best ways according to the authors will be also provided.

Extracts of bled resin from Azorella compacta , of the Azorelloideae family from the Andes (>4000 m), were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The mass spectra of the dominant compounds of the resin and its hydrogenation products were documented. The most abundant compounds were oxygenated diterpenoids, namely mulinadien-20-oic (Δ 11,13 and Δ 11,14 ) acids, azorell-13-en-20-oic acid, 13α,14β-dihydroxymulin-11-en-20-oic acid, and azorellanol, with a group of azorellenes and mulinadienes. The mass spectra of the novel diterpenoid hydrocarbons with the azorellane and mulinane skeletons were also presented. This study documents the molecular diversity of these diterpenoid classes, and could be of great utility for future organic geochemical, environmental, archeological, pharmaceutical, and forensic chemistry studies.

The extreme conditions (e.g., cold, low oxygen, and strong ultraviolet radiation) of the high mountains provide an ideal natural laboratory for studies on speciation and the adaptive evolution of organisms. Up to now, few genome/transcriptome-based studies have been carried out on how plants adapt to conditions at extremely high altitudes. Notopterygium incisum and Notopterygium franchetii ( Notopterygium , Apiaceae) are two endangered high-alpine herbal plants endemic to China. To explore the molecular genetic mechanisms of adaptation to high altitudes, we performed high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to characterize the transcriptomes of the two species. In total, more than 130 million sequence reads, 81,446 and 63,153 unigenes with total lengths of 86,924,837 and 62,615,693 bp, were generated for the two herbal species, respectively. OrthoMCL analysis identified 6375 single-copy orthologous genes between N. incisum and N. franchetii . In total, 381 positively-selected candidate genes were identified for both plants by using estimations of the non-synonymous to synonymous substitution rate. At least 18 of these genes potentially participate in RNA splicing, DNA repair, glutathione metabolism and the plant-pathogen interaction pathway, which were further enriched in various functional gene categories possibly responsible for environment adaptation in high mountains. Meanwhile, we detected various transcription factors that regulated the material and energy metabolism in N. incisum and N. franchetii, which probably play vital roles in the tolerance to stress in surroundings. In addition, 60 primer pairs based on orthologous microsatellite-containing sequences between the both Notopterygium species were determined. Finally, 17 polymorphic microsatellite markers (SSR) were successfully characterized for the two endangered species. Based on these candidate orthologous and SSR markers, we detected that the adaptive evolution and species divergence of N. incisum and N. franchetii were significantly associated with the extremely heterogeneous environments and climatic oscillations in high-altitude areas. This work provides important insights into the molecular mechanisms of adaptation to high-altitudes in alpine herbal plants., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest. The founding sponsors had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, and in the decision to publish the results.