The manzamine alkaloids

Abstract The manzamine alkaloids are absolutely one of the most fascinating marine natural products. The representative manzamine alkaloids, manzamines A–C, were isolated from a marine sponge Haliclona sp. collected off Cape Manzamo, Okinawa, Japan. The manzamine alkaloids are a unique class of alkaloids possessing a characteristic heterocyclic system, and exhibit a diverse range of bioactivities including cytotoxicity, antimicrobial activity, antimalarial activity, antiviral and antiinflammatory activities, antiinsecticidal activity, and proteasome inhibitory activity. About 100 manzamine alkaloids have been isolated from more than 16 species of marine sponges belonging to 5 families. The unusual ring systems, an intriguing suggested biogenetic pathway, and promising biological activities of manzamine alkaloids have attracted great interest as challenging targets for the total synthesis. This review is the continuation of the previous review published in volume 60 of The Alkaloids and covers isolation, structure elucidation, biosynthesis and biogenesis, chemical synthesis, and biological activity of manzamine alkaloids reported from 2003 to 2018.