Electrochemical monitoring of the pharmacological activity of natural products

Electrochemical techniques have largely been applied to characterize the redox reactivity of natural and synthetic compounds and to determine natural and synthetic compounds in solution. A series of new applications of electrochemistry that has emerged in the last few decades and aims to obtain information on the pharmacological activity of natural products is reviewed. Such applications involve the following: (1) electrochemical testing of specific pharmacological activity via electrochemical screening; (2) in situ evaluation of drug-substrate interactions, including the study of pharmacologically active natural products and their metabolites; (3) electrochemical mimicry of selected biological redox processes to observe correlations between molecular structure, redox properties, and pharmacological activity based on (a) thermochemical properties and/or (b) kinetic properties; (4) promoting electrochemical activation of the pharmacological activity; and (5) in situ generation of redox-active species (typically, reactive oxygen species) involved in the mechanisms of the pharmacological activity of natural products and the study of the involvement of these natural products in pharmacological/toxicological processes.