Resistance to antibiotics is a major global problem and there is an urgent need to develop new therapeutic agents. Although many classes of active compounds have been established as efficient derivatives in diverse fields of antimicrobial therapy, they have not yet found wide application against a few deadly microbes. In recent years, compounds have been developed that have solved some of the problems posed; for example improved bioavailability is one of the targets achieved with most of the more recent compounds, allowing for once-daily dosing. Benzofuran and its derivatives are found to be suitable structures, existing widely in natural products and unnatural compounds with a wide range of biological and pharmacological applications; thus, considerable attention has been focused on the discovery of new drugs in the fields of drug invention and development. Some benzofuran derivatives, such as psoralen, 8-methoxypsoralen and angelicin have been used in the treatment of skin diseases such as cancer or psoriasis. The unique structural features of benzofuran and its wide array of biological activities make it a privileged structure in the field of drug discovery, especially in the search for efficient antimicrobial candidates. Recently, this scaffold has emerged as a pharmacophore of choice for designing antimicrobial agents that are active toward different clinically approved targets. To pave the way for future research, there is a need to collect the latest information in this promising area. In the present review, we collated the published reports on this versatile core to provide a deeper insight, so that its full therapeutic potential can be utilized for the treatment of microbial diseases. This study systematically provides a comprehensive report on current developments in benzofuran-based compounds as antimicrobial agents and is also helpful for the researchers working on a substitution pattern around the nucleus, with an aim to help medicinal chemists to develop structure activity relationships (SAR) on these derivatives as antimicrobial drugs.

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苯并呋喃：一种新兴的抗菌剂支架

对抗生素的抗性是一个主要的全球性问题，迫切需要开发新的治疗剂。尽管已经在抗菌治疗的各个领域中将许多种类的活性化合物确立为有效的衍生物，但是它们尚未发现针对几种致命微生物的广泛应用。近年来，已经开发出解决了一些问题的化合物。例如，提高生物利用度是大多数最新化合物实现的目标之一，允许每天一次给药。发现苯并呋喃及其衍生物是合适的结构，广泛存在于天然产物和非天然化合物中，具有广泛的生物学和药理学应用；因此，在药物发明和开发领域中，相当多的注意力集中在新药物的发现上。一些苯并呋喃衍生物，例如补骨脂素，8-甲氧基补骨脂素和当归素已用于治疗皮肤疾病，例如癌症或牛皮癣。苯并呋喃的独特结构特征及其广泛的生物活性使其成为药物发现领域的特权结构，尤其是在寻找有效的抗微生物候选药物方面。最近，这种支架已经成为设计对不同临床批准的靶标具有活性的抗微生物剂的选择的药效团。为了为将来的研究铺平道路，需要在这一有前途的领域中收集最新信息。在目前的评论中，我们整理了有关该通用核的已发表报告，以提供更深入的见解，以便可以将其全部治疗潜力用于治疗微生物疾病。这项研究系统地提供了有关苯并呋喃基化合物作为抗微生物剂的最新进展的综合报告，也有助于研究人员围绕核周围的取代模式进行研究，目的是帮助药用化学家在其上发展结构活性关系（SAR）。这些衍生物作为抗菌药物。