A Comprehensive Review on Therapeutic Applications of Ferulic Acid and its Novel Analogues: A Brief Literature

The compound 4-hydroxy-3-methoxycinnamic acid, named as ferulic acid (FA), is a ubiquitous phenolic compound which is distributed extensively in the plant kingdom. Ferulic acid is a boon as it shows immense potential therapeutic effects which are useful in the treatment of diabetes, cancer, pulmonary and CVS diseases majorly due to its anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory action. Ferulic acid exhibits other wide variety of biological activities such as, anticarcinogenic, antiallergic, antimicrobial, antiviral, hepatoprotective, metal chelation, activation of transcriptional factors, modulation of enzyme activity, gene expression as well as signal transduction. The structural characteristics of this active ingredient make it an optimal substrate to form or synthesize various derivates and its formulations. The present review addresses structure of ferulic acid, its pharmacodynamic parameters, applications and its various derivatives. In addition, the review also aims to cover the main aspects related to use of ferulic acid in the food and health industry and have listed various published patents on Ferulic acid.