Artificial Polymeric Flavonoids: Synthesis and Applications

Abstract

Flavonoids, one of the most numerous and best studied groups of plant polyphenols, are well known to exhibit various biological and pharmacological effects. Functional artificial polymeric flavonoids, flavonoid polymers and amine containing polymer-flavonoid conjugates have been developed. The acid-catalyzed polymerization of catechin and aldehydes proceeds regioselectively to produce catechin-aldehyde polycondensates. Peroxidases and laccases catalyze the oxidative coupling of flavonoids and oxidative conjugation with polyamines. The resulting polymers show much higher antioxidant activities than the flavonoid monomers. In addition, these polymeric flavonoids efficiently inhibit disease related enzymes, such as xanthine oxidase, collagenase, elastase, hyaluronidase and tyrosinase. Based on these results, the molecular design for amplification of the biological and pharmacological properties of flavonoids is proposed.

Enzyme Initiated Radical Polymerizations

“…A representative, but by far not exhaustive selection of the different monomers is given in Figures 16 and 17. For a detailed discussion about polymer properties and potential uses, the interested reader is referred to some excellent previous overviews [8][9][10][11][12]. …”

“…Especially their antioxidant and radical scavenging activity but also anti microbial properties make this product class interesting. The group around Kobayashi has investigated the production and properties of polymerized polyphenols [11]. Interestingly, in the majority of these examples, the antioxidant activity (and quite frequently also other health properties) are significantly increased as compared to the monomers.…”

“…Hence, it is not astonishing that biocatalysis is also enjoying growing interest in the field of polymers [8]. One field that has expanded tremendously in the past two decades is the enzyme-initiated radical polymerization of aromatic and OPEN ACCESS vinyl monomers [8][9][10][11][12]. In this contribution, we summarize and critically evaluate the past and recent developments in this field also giving an outlook of the future perspectives.…”

Wood production, wood technology, and biotechnological impacts

“…In the leather industry, laccases may be used in removal of lignicellulose-containing dung cladding from the animal hides (Auer et al 1999) and, more importantly, in replacing environmentally precarious chrome-based tanning agents in the process of leather making (Thanikaivelan et al 2004(Thanikaivelan et al , 2005 and in turning natural polyphenols in the animal skins or added phenolic compounds into lightfast pigments (Covington et al 2005, Surpano et al 2005. Of pharmaceutical potential as antioxidants are polymers produced from plant flavonoids by laccase (Uyama 2007). Whilst the so far mentioned applications are all possible, they essentially play no or only a minor role in current industrial processes.…”

Structural Analysis and Physiological Properties of Exopolysaccharides Secreted by a Newly Isolated Pseudomonas stutzeri Bl58 under Alkaline Conditions

“…Synthetic polymers, such as plastics and elastics, are important materials in our lives and have contributed to the development of novel industrial technologies in many fields, such as medicine [1][2][3], food [4,5] and electronics [6,7]. Over time, many functional polymers have been developed for a wide range of purposes, but environmental problems have resulted from the large scale distribution and disposal of synthetic polymers that are not biodegradable [8].…”