Benzothiophene is an aromatic organic compound with the molecular formula C8H6S and a naphthalene-like odor. Benzothiophenes are used in research as a starting material for the synthesis of larger, often biologically active structures. It exists in medicinal chemical structures such as raloxifene, zileuton, and sertaconazole, and can also be found in BTCP. It is also used to make dyes such as thioindigo.
Coumarin occurs naturally in a variety of plants, such as lentils, sweet sawdust, vanilla grass, and sweet grass. Coumarin has a simple structure, benzopyrone, associated with different reaction centers. Coumarins are further subdivided into different classes: simple coumarins, pyranocoumarins, furanocoumarins, dicoumarins and isocoumarins. Coumarin derivatives are an important class of natural plant metabolites with various biological activities. They can also be synthesized artificially, and various synthetic coumarin derivatives (azoles, sulfonyls, furans, pyrazoles, etc.) have shown good anticancer, antitumor and antiproliferative activities. Coumarin derivatives are not only effective anticancer agents, but also possess minimum side effects. Based on different substitution patterns, these potential active substances show a great ability to modulate potential anticancer activities.