Pyrazole containing natural products: Synthetic preview and biological significance

A large number of structurally diverse natural compounds containing azole nucleus constitute an important class of biologically active heterocycles that are gaining more attention in the field of medicinal chemistry. Among azoles, pyrazoles are rarely found in nature probably due to difficulty in the formation of N N bond by living organisms. However, they exhibit numerous biological activities, including anti-diabetic, antiviral, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial and antifungal activities. The present review is an attempt to understand the chemistry along with medicinal importance of pyrazole containing natural products reported till date which would certainly help the scientific community to bring further developments in the isolation and synthetic methodologies for pyrazole based novel bioactive compounds. (C) 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.