Recent advances on synthesis and biological activities of aurones

Aurones are naturally occurring structural isomerides of flavones that have diverse bioactivities including antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, antimalarial, antioxidant, neuropharmacological activities and so on. They constitute an important class of pharmacologically active scaffolds that exhibit multiple biological activities via diverse mechanisms. This review article provides an update on the recent advances (2013–2020.4) in the synthesis and biological activities of these derivatives. In the cases where sufficient information is available, some important structure–activity relationships (SAR) of their biological activities were presented, and on the strength of our expertise in medicinal chemistry and careful analysis of the recent literature, for the potential of aurones as medicinal drugs is proposed.