Recent advances in the synthesis and applications of furocoumarin derivatives

Furocoumarins are an important class of heterocyclic compounds with a fused tricyclic structure of coumarin and furan rings. They are commonly found in bioactive natural products and have a diverse range of biological and pharmaceutical properties, including cytotoxicity, photosensitivity, insecticidal, antibacterial, and antifungal activity, among others. The elegant linear/angular tricyclic skeleton and superior pharmacological properties, make them ideal for building and developing advanced biological scaffolds for biomedical applications. As a result, the family of furocoumarins has been the focus of intensive research, and lots of encouraging progress have been achieved in recent years. This review summarizes the most recent methods reported for the synthesis of the furocoumarin derivative family, along with their applications in medicinal chemistry covering from 2018 to 2022.