Natural product derivatives are essential in searching for compounds with important chemical, biological, and medical applications. Naphthoquinones are secondary metabolites found in plants and are used in traditional medicine to treat diverse human diseases. Considering this, the synthesis of naphthoquinone derivatives has been explored to contain compounds with potential biological activity. It has been reported that the chemical modification of naphthoquinones improves their pharmacological properties by introducing amines, amino acids, furan, pyran, pyrazole, triazole, indole, among other chemical groups. In this systematic review, we summarized the preparation of nitrogen naphthoquinones derivatives and discussed their biological effect associated with redox properties and other mechanisms. Preclinical evaluation of antibacterial and/or antitumoral naphthoquinones derivatives is included because cancer is a worldwide health problem, and there is a lack of effective drugs against multidrug-resistant bacteria. The information presented herein indicates that naphthoquinone derivatives could be considered for further studies to provide drugs efficient in treating cancer and multidrug-resistant bacteria.

Reducing the risk of the aquatic ecosystem’s contamination with organic substances such as pharmaceuticals is of great importance due to the toxicological effect of these substances on aquatic organisms. Therefore, the removal of pharmaceuticals and/or their metabolites frequently reported in industrial or municipal wastewaters require efficient processes that complement the conventional treatment systems; the constructed wetlands are an option. In this work, the removal efficiency of mixed diclofenac and naproxen was evaluated using a subsurface flow constructed wetland planted with cattail (Typha latifolia), operated during 100 days at a hydraulic residence time (HRT) of 3 days. Under these conditions, the diclofenac and naproxen removal efficiencies were 82.0% and 74.5%, respectively. The interaction between diclofenac and naproxen with cellulose, which is the major cell wall compound of higher plants, was computationally modeled at the PM6 semi-empirical level of theory and it was found that diclofenac and naproxen interact with cellulose via hydrogen bonds. Resumen. Reducir el riesgo de contaminación de los ecosistemas acuáticos con sustancias orgánicas como los fármacos es de gran importancia debido al efecto toxicológico de estas sustancias para los organismos acuáticos. Por ello, la remoción de los fármacos y/o sus metabolitos frecuentemente reportados en aguas residuales industriales o municipales requiere de procesos eficientes que complementen los sistemas convencionales de tratamiento; los humedales construidos son una opción. En este trabajo, se evaluó la eficiencia de remoción de diclofenaco y de naproxeno en mezcla utilizando un humedal construido de flujo subsuperficial con plantas de tule (Typha latifolia), operado durante 100 días con un tiempo de residencia hidráulica (TRH) de 3 días. En estas condiciones, las eficiencias de remoción de diclofenaco y de naproxeno fueron de 82.0 % y 74.5 % respectivamente. La interacción entre diclofenaco y naproxeno con celulosa, que es el componente mayoritario de la pared celular de las plantas superiores, se modeló computacionalmente al nivel de teoría semiempírico con el método PM6, y se encontró que diclofenaco y naproxeno interactúan con celulosa mediante puentes de hidrógeno.