Artificial polymeric flavonoids: synthesis and applications.

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.