Osthole: A Medicinally Privileged Natural Compound with its Therapeutic Potential

Osthole is a coumarin derived natural compound which is an essential ingredient of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TMC) which is widely distributed in nature in plants like Cnidium monnieri (L) Cusson and Angelica pubescens. Current study presents a critical review on description of pharmacological importance of osthole, which is reported to exhibit anticancer, antioxidant, osteogenic, hepatoprotective, neuroprotective, cardiovascular protective, antimicrobial, immuno-modulatory and inflammatory activities. Till date, the reports include pharmacological properties, brief chemistry or on advanced methods to explore osthole content in variety of plants. Present review seeks to highlight the sources, biosynthesis, extraction methods, pharmacological properties of the molecule and its derivatives. A brief discussion on patents recently published and granted on the molecule has also been highlighted. Thus the overview of the literature presents the analysis about future possible modalities of the research on this molecule.