In vitro antimicrobial anticancer antioxidant anti inflammatory properties and in silico molecular mechanisms of 7 trihydroxy flavones and its derivatives

Abstract

Abstract: Flavonoids are a large group of plant secondary metabolites having a wide variety of pharmacological activities such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antiviral, hepatotoxic, anticancer etc. The surfeit of activities makes the flavonoids a very interesting class of biologically active compounds. These naturally occurring flavone moieties with a wide array of pharmacological activities can function as lead for further synthesis of semi-synthetic and synthetic derivatives. Natural plant flavonoids are widely available, however, the process of identification and separation is very tedious, time-consuming and expensive. Hence to overcome this challenge, alternatively synthesis of flavonoids are considered more ideal as the process is simple and derivatization of the compounds is easier as compared to natural flavonoids. Hence the present study was designed to prepare synthetic flavones and evaluate them for various pharmacological activities. The structure of the flavonoids plays a major role in determining their pharmacological activity. One of the most important feature of flavonoids is the presence of 2,3-unsaturation in the C ring and the number and position of hydroxyl groups in the A and B rings which have a prominent effect on the antioxidant and anticancer activity of these compounds. The presence of a catechol group on ring B (3 , 4 -OH) significantly enhanced antioxidant activity. It is also seen in certain studies that the methoxylated flavones gave a better antiproliferative effect than the hydroxylated flavones. Taking into consideration the above structural activity relationship findings, the study was designed to synthesize substituted derivatives and to study various pharmacological effects such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti- inflammatory. Based on various SAR studies and other literature reports, it was decided to synthesize and comparatively evaluate the pharmacological activity of 7, 3 , 4 trihydroxy flavone 7, 8, 4 -trihydro flavone and 7-hydroxy flavo