Purpurin is a naturally occurring anthraquinone isolated from the roots of Rubia cordifolia. Historically, it has been used as a red dye. However, its photosensitizing property and biological effects have deciphered its novel application. Purpurin shows antigenotoxic, anticancer, neuromodulatory, and antimicrobial potential associated with antioxidant action in in vivo and in vitro experiments. A robust antioxidant nature of purpurin is responsible for the majority of its pharmacological effects. It produces anti-inflammatory activity by reducing oxidative stress, which is a fundamental property to target diseases involving endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondrial stress. It can cross the blood-brain barrier and produce neuroprotective effects, including antidepressant and anti-Alzheimer action. It shows antimutagenic property via inhibiting essential CYP-450 enzymes. Interestingly, it gets photosensitized by UV-light and produces target-specific ROS-dependent apoptosis in cancer cells. Therefore, it owns cell killing and cell survival potential subject to the influence of external conditions. Hitherto, limited research studies are performed with purpurin to understand its therapeutic potential. Hence, this review describes and discusses different in vivo, in vitro, and in silico studies performed using purpurin. It also covers physicochemical, pharmacokinetics, and toxicology aspects of purpurin. Moreover, in the end, the prospect of purpurin in the management of cancer has also been proposed.

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红紫素：一种具有多方面药理活性的天然蒽醌

红紫素是一种从茜草根中分离出来的天然蒽醌。历史上，它曾被用作红色染料。然而，它的光敏特性和生物效应已经破译了它的新应用。在体内和体外实验中，红紫素显示出与抗氧化作用相关的抗原毒性、抗癌、神经调节和抗菌潜力。红紫素强大的抗氧化性质是其大部分药理作用的原因。它通过减少氧化应激产生抗炎活性，这是针对涉及内质网和线粒体应激的疾病的基本特性。它可以穿过血脑屏障并产生神经保护作用，包括抗抑郁和抗阿尔茨海默病作用。它通过抑制必需的 CYP-450 酶而显示出抗突变特性。有趣的是，它被紫外线光敏化，并在癌细胞中产生目标特异性的ROS依赖性细胞凋亡。因此，它具有受外界条件影响的细胞杀伤和细胞存活的潜力。迄今为止，仅对红紫素进行了有限的研究以了解其治疗潜力。因此，本综述描述并讨论了使用红紫素进行的不同体内、体外和计算机研究。它还涵盖了红紫素的物理化学、药代动力学和毒理学方面。而且，最后还提出了红紫素在癌症治疗方面的前景。