Recent Progress in Biological Activities of Indole and Indole Alkaloids

The indole scaffold is found in a wide range of bioactive heterocycles and natural products. Moreover, the indole moiety is considered as the active principle in several alkaloids such as mitomycin C and reserpine. Thus, over the past decade, chemists are increasingly attracted towards the studies on the pharmacological and therapeutic activities of indole containing compounds. Furthermore, the molecular structures of well-known drugs such as sumatriptan, tadalafil, fluvastatin and rizatriptan are based on indole frameworks. This mini-review covers some of the significant and recent achievements of indole derivatives with respect to their biological activities up to 2015. Keywords: Anti-cancer, anti-HIV, anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, biological activities, indole.