Constituents from Aphanamixis species and their biological activities

Members of the Meliaceae family have been studied extensively because they contain a series of interesting, structurally diverse and biologically important triterpenoids. Plants from the genus Aphanamixis of Meliaceae have a long history of medicinal use. Substantial investigations into their chemical and pharmacological properties have been performed. Recently, interest in this genus has been centred on their production of complex, highly oxidised tetranortriterpenoids (also known as limonoids or meliacins), which exhibit potent cytotoxic and antitumour activities against various human cancer cell lines and in preclinical animal models. This review summarises triterpenoids isolated from Aphanamixis plants and those triterpenoids' bioactivities, structure-activity relationships and biosyntheses.