Syntheses and photophysical properties of natural dehydroabietic acid-based ligands and their zinc complexes

•An easily obtained derivative 1 from natural dehydroabietic acid was applied as a precursor in this work, which could further derivatize to its Schiff base ligands and corresponding zinc complexes with a high crystalline yield.•The larger dihedral angles of the ligands are indicative of strong molecular motion, resulting in their luminescence quenching.•When the ligands were structurally restricted via coordination to zinc ion, their fluorescence occurred, most probably due to the restriction of intramolecular motion.•This work not only discusses the relationship between their photophysical properties and molecular structures, but also provides a new natural resource for further research in fluorescent materials.