Page 70 - 2025中醫藥與天然藥物聯合學術研討會-中醫藥與天然藥物的挑戰Ｘ機遇與未來大會手冊

Ecdysteroids: A Unique Chemical Bridge between Plants, Insects, and

Vertebrates

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Noémi Crul-Tóth, Máté Vass, Enéh A. Oaklekie, Róbert Berkecz, Attila Hunyadi* ,1,3

1 Institute of Pharmacognosy, University of Szeged, Szeged H-6720, Hungary
2 Institute of Pharmaceutical Analysis, University of Szeged, Szeged H-6720, Hungary
3 HUN-REN-SZTE Biologically Active Natural Products Research Group, Szeged H-6720,
Hungary
* E-mail: hunyadi.attila@szte.hu

Abstract
Ecdysteroids are a widely distributed group of natural products that serve very different yet

highly specific roles on different levels of Nature. As a consequence to this, ecdysteroids
connect plants, insects, and insectivorous animals through a unique, complex, and only partially
understood network of ecological interactions. The most prevalent and deeply studied
ecdysteroid is 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E), i.e., the insect moulting hormone. 20E is

biosynthesized in large amounts by many plants as a biopesticide, which, however, exerts
beneficial bioactivities in vertebrates. 20E is a non-hormonal anabolic and adaptogenic agent,
and it is currently under development as a life-saving lung-protective agent (clinical phase 2/3),
and as a treatment of sarcopenia (phase 2). In the presentation, we provide a brief overview on

the biomedical potential of natural and semi-synthetic ecdysteroids including our new oxidized
lead compound. We also demonstrate the ecological significance of the food-chain transfer of
such compounds from plants through insects to vertebrates, and present what we learned from
the UHPLC-HRMS/MS studies on several hundreds of blood samples of wild songbirds, bats,

and other insectivorous animals.

Keywords: 20-Hydroxyecdysone; Ecdysteroid semisynthesis; Drug discovery; Insectivorism;
Metabolomics

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