Several Classes of Natural Products with Metal ion Chelating Ability

Noncovalent interactions, namely ion pair interactions, hydrogen bonds, cation–π interactions and London dispersion forces are considered to have a fundamental impact in molecular recognition. The relationship between metal ions and natural products has been extensively studied. A great number of natural products possess ion chelating ability, such as cyclic peptides, ionophores, siderophores, phytochelatins, flavonoids and other types of compounds, namely polysaccharides and oligosaccharides. These findings spurred extensive research on the ion chelating natural products over the past decade. This review provides a more detailed insight of siderophores, phytochelatins and ion chelating flavonoids obtained from natural sources.