Ahmed E Fazary, Mohammad Y Alfaifi, Kamel A Saleh, Mohammed A Alshehri and Serag Eldin I Elbehairi
Lignans are polyphenols spread in a wide variety of plant-based foods, including seeds, whole grains, legumes, fruit, and vegetables. When consumed, lignan precursors are converted to the enterolignans, enterodiol and enterolactone, by bacteria that normally colonize the human intestine. Lignans have attracted considerable attention due to their pharmacological and biological activities. This review article is a survey on the molecular structure of about 276 new naturally occurring lignans obtained from different plant families. We classified seven main types according to their structural features, and provided a number of review reports published recently about lignans. A tabular compilation of the molecular structures of known lignans is presented at the end of this survey report. A total of 111 references were considered for this survey report.