Research and development of natural product Salidroside: Pharmacology, total synthesis and structural modifications

Salidroside (SAL) is a glycoside compound with good biological activity, which has multi-target therapeutic potential for various disease. It can significantly regulate various receptors, inflammatory mediators and signaling pathways. However, due to the problems of low content of natural sources, difficulty in isolation and purification and poor bioavailability, SAL cannot be widely used in clinical treatment. This article reviews the chemical total synthesis methods and the typical pharmacological effects of SAL, mainly about anti-tumor, anti-hypoxia and anti-sepsis fields. In addition, this article focuses on summarizing the research progress on the structural modification of SAL. Summarized the structure-activity relationship of SAL and its derivatives. These contents can enhance scholars’ understanding of the current research progress on SAL, overcome the limitations which SAL is faced, and provide constructive insights for further development of new drugs based on SAL.