Volume 1398, Issue 1 p. 120-129
REVIEW

Structure, bioactivity, and synthesis of methylated flavonoids

Lingrong Wen

Lingrong Wen

Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China

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Yueming Jiang

Yueming Jiang

Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China

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Jiali Yang

Jiali Yang

Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China

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Yupeng Zhao

Yupeng Zhao

Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China

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Miaomiao Tian

Miaomiao Tian

Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China

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Bao Yang

Corresponding Author

Bao Yang

Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China

Address for correspondence: Bao Yang, Ph.D., Key Laboratory of Plant Resources Conservation and Sustainable Utilization, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Botany, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Second Lab Building, 723 Xingke Road, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510650, China. [email protected]Search for more papers by this author
First published: 24 April 2017
Citations: 114

Abstract

Methylated flavonoids are an important type of natural flavonoid derivative with potentially multiple health benefits; among other things, they have improved bioavailability compared with flavonoid precursors. Flavonoids have been documented to have broad bioactivities, such as anticancer, immunomodulation, and antioxidant activities, that can be elevated, to a certain extent, by methylation. Understanding the structure, bioactivity, and bioavailability of methylated flavonoids, therefore, is an interesting topic with broad potential applications. Though methylated flavonoids are widely present in plants, their levels are usually low. Because developing efficient techniques to produce these chemicals would likely be beneficial, we provide an overview of their chemical and biological synthesis.