Narirutin: Advances on Resources, Biosynthesis Pathway, Bioavailability, Bioactivity, and Pharmacology

Abstract

Even though the modern pharmaceutical industry has made significant progress in recent years, phytochemicals from herbal sources are being widely used since ancient times thanks to their low toxicity. Especially in the last two decades, raised awareness on the utilization of naturally occurring bioactive compounds paved the way for many research studies on phytochemicals. Among those phytochemicals, polyphenols are frequently becoming the main topic of the disease treatment/prevention. Narirutin is a type of flavanone with a sugar moiety in its structure, which is widely found in citrus fruits such as orange, mandarin, and grapefruit. Narirutin has many therapeutic properties, including anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, antioxidant, anti-diabetic, anti-cancer and anti-tumor effects. Even though some pre-clinical reports are present, there are very limited clinical studies published in literature about narirutin. Therefore, the scope of clinical studies is required to be widened in order to understand and clarify the medicinal usage of narirutin for therapeutic purposes. This chapter focuses on the critical evaluation of the narirutin in terms of its natural sources, potential health effects, biosynthesis pathway, and cellular action mechanism in addition to its marketability, patents, toxicological knowledge, and safety concerns.