Studies of different secondary metabolites: Natural products from the mevalonate pathway

Natural products, also called secondary metabolites, are small molecules that are not involved in main life processes. These can be produced by any living organism and play important roles as chemical weapons, protecting the organism from the competitive environment.
Due to their bioactivity, natural products present in medicinal plants, mushrooms (and other organisms such as bacteria and algae) have been the source of medicine and the inspiration of modern dug discovery since they are characterized by an enormous scaffold diversity and structural complexity.
In the search of new natural products, this thesis comprises the study of natural products from two fungal species, Aleurodiscus sp. and Galiella Rufa.
From Aleurodiscus sp., 8 molecules in total were isolated, belonging to the benzofuran, chromane and chromene-type compounds.
From G. rufa no novel molecules were isolated since its chemistry is well known, however, this thesis comprises the use of its enzymatic potential to biotransform synthetic analogues of desoxygaliellalactone into galiellalactone and galiellalactam analogues.
Finally, from the medicinal plant Trichilia adolfi, nine novel limonoids-type natural products were isolated and evaluated as anti-parasitic agents.