Terminalia Linn, a genus of mostly medium or large trees in the family Combretaceae with about 250 species in the world, is distributed mainly in southern Asia, Himalayas, Madagascar, Australia, and the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa. Many species are used widely in many traditional medicinal systems, e.g., traditional Chinese medicine, Tibetan medicine, and Indian Ayurvedic medicine practices. So far, about 39 species have been phytochemically studied, which led to the identification of 368 compounds, including terpenoids, tannins, flavonoids, phenylpropanoids, simple phenolics and so on. Some of the isolates showed various bioactivities, in vitro or in vivo, such as antitumor, anti HIV-1, antifungal, antimicrobial, antimalarial, antioxidant, diarrhea and analgesic. This review covers research articles from 1934 to 2018, retrieved from SciFinder, Wikipedia, Google Scholar, Chinese Knowledge Network and Baidu Scholar by using "Terminalia" as the search term ("all fields") with no specific time frame setting for the search. Thirty-nine important medicinal and edible Terminalia species were selected and summarized on their geographical distribution, traditional uses, phytochemistry and related pharmacological activities.

Nine new gastrodin derivatives, including seven p-hydroxybenzyl-modified gastrodin ethers (1-7), 6'-O-acetylgastrodin (8), and 4-[α-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→6)-β-D-glucopyranosyloxy]benzyl alcohol (9), together with seven known derivatives, were isolated from an aqueous extract of Gastrodia elata ("tian ma") rhizomes. Their structures were determined by spectroscopic and chemical methods as well as single crystal X-ray diffraction. Compounds 1-4, 7, 10, and 11 were also isolated from a reaction mixture by refluxing gastrodin and p-hydroxybenzyl alcohol in H₂O. As both gastrodin and p-hydroxybenzyl alcohol exist in the plant, the reaction results provide evidence for the production and increase/decrease of potential effective/toxic components when "tian ma" is decocted solely or together with ingredients in Chinese traditional medicine formulations, though the isolates were inactive in the preliminarily cell-based assays at concentrations of 10 μM. Moreover, using ultraperformance liquid chromatography high-resolution electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (UPLC-HRESIMS), 4, 7, 10, and 11, as well as component variations, were detectable in the freshly prepared extracts of different types of samples, including the freeze-dried fresh G. elata rhizomes.

Phytochemical studies on MeOH extract of stems of Euphorbia griffithii led to the isolation of one new hydrolyzable tannin dimer, corilagiffithiin (1) and one new galloyl-glucoside (2), alongside six known ones (3-8). Their structures and absolute configurations were determined by in depth spectroscopic analyses and comparison of their 1D NMR and MS data with literature reported values. Configurations of sugar moieties were determined by acidic hydrolysis and subsequent GC analysis of their corresponding trimethylsilylated L-cysteine adduct. At a concentration of 50 μM, compounds 1-3 showed no anti-inflammatory activities.

An endophytic fungus Pestalotiopsis microspora isolated from the fruits of Manilkara zapota was cultured in potato dextrose broth media. Chromatographic separation of the EtOAc extract of the broth and mycelium led to the isolation of a new azaphilonoid named pitholide E (1), in addition to previously identified pitholide B (2), pitholide D (3), pestalotin (LL-P880α) (4), PC-2 (5), LL-P880β (6), tyrosol (7) and 4-oxo-4H-pyran-3-acetic acid (8). An endophytic fungus P. microspora from M. zapota and the isolation of compounds 1-5, 7 and 8 from P. microspora are reported here for the first time.

Diterpenoid alkaloids have neroprotective activity. Herein, three napelline-type diterpenoid alkaloids 1-3, two aconitinetype diterpenoid alkaloids 4-5, and one isoquinline-type alkaloid 6, as well as one lignan glycoside 7, have been isolated from the roots of Aconitum pendulum Busch. Compounds 1 and 7 were new compounds, and their chemical structures were determined on the basis of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra and mass spectrometry analysis. A ThT assay revealed that compound 2 showed significant disaggregation potency on the Aβ_1-42 aggregates.

Two hitherto unknown iboga-type indole alkaloids, namely (3R)-7,19-di-epi-3-methoxytabernoxidine (1) and (3R,19R)-19-hydroxy-3-(2-oxopropyl)voacangine (2), together with eight known alkaloids (3-10), were isolated from the twigs and leaves of Tabernaemontana divaricata. Their structures were established on the basis of spectroscopic data interpretation, single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis and circular dichroism spectrum.