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Influenza can affect the health of human being and it is considered as the most serious respiratory disease. (–)-Oseltamivir phosphate, also popularly known as Tamiflu, has been reported to be one of the most potent chemotherapeutic agents with oral activity. It can inhibit the viral neuraminidase enzyme to catalyze the cleavage of the sialic acid residue from glycoproteins, thus preventing the infected cells to liberate the proliferated viruses. The industrial production method for oseltamivir phosphate uses (–)-shikimic acid as the starting material, which is a natural product isolated from a plant of Chinese star anise (belonging to the Illicium family). However, because the (–)-shikimic acid is unavailable in consistent purity and sufficient quantity, many chemists have dedicated some new synthetic routes to prepare this drug for the treatment of influenza disease. In this article, the reported synthetic approaches for (–)-oseltamivir phosphate since 2011 are reviewed, and the representative results are described in chronological order.

Scutellarin, which is extracted from the dried plant of Erigeron breviscapus, has been reported to protect the neural injury against excitotoxicity induced by ischemia. However, there are a few studies on the protective effects of scutellarein, which is the main metabolite of scutellarin in vivo. Thus, this study investigated the neuroprotective effects of scutellarein on cerebral ischemia/reperfusion in rats by bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (BCCAO) model, through the analysis of endogenous amino acids using HILIC-MS/MS, and evaluation of Ca2+ concentration together with Ca2+-ATPase activity. The results showed that scutellarein having good protective effects on cerebral ischemia/reperfusion might by decreasing the excitatory amino acids, increasing the inhibitory amino acids, lowing intracellular Ca2+ level, and improving Ca2+-ATPase activity, which suggested that scutellarein might be a promising potent agent for the therapy of ischemic cerebrovascular disease.