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CHEMICAL BIOLOGY OF PLANT ANTIOXIDANTS: BIOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF 2, 2′, 5′‐TRIHYDROXYCHALCONE AND RELATED COMPOUNDS
Author(s) -
Duong Michelle Minh,
Jiwrajka Manasi,
Caruso Francesco,
Pedersen Jens,
Incerpi Sandra,
Rossi Miriam
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.25.1_supplement.981.17
Subject(s) - dpph , antioxidant , chemistry , chalcone , scavenger , antifungal , biological activity , free radical scavenger , biochemistry , organic chemistry , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , in vitro
A growing interest in using natural compounds obtained from plants for medicinal purposes has increased recently. Plants produce secondary metabolites that protect them from stressors such as toxins and insects. Some of these secondary metabolites have interesting biological activities that we wish to understand. We are focusing our studies on a family of these compounds, chalcones, which show antifungal, antileishmanial and antioxidant activities. Previous studies by Nakano, et al (unpublished results) have shown that the 5′‐OH position on chalcones provides for strong scavenging activity and that the title compound demonstrated unusually high antioxidant activity as measured by using the DPPH UV‐vis assay. For our current project, we have extended these studies on the title compound by measuring its antioxidant activity towards another stable free radical, galvinoxyl, using UV‐vis spectroscopy at different concentrations. We also utilized EPR spectroscopy to show that the title compound retained its activity towards both galvinoxyl and DPPH even at extremely low concentrations. EPR experiments also confirmed that the title compound itself is a free radical at high concentrations and under basic conditions. Last, we tested the activity of the trihydroxychalcone in two cell lines that underwent oxidative stress, L‐6 myoblasts and THP‐1 monocytes. These cells were treated with the chalcone at varying concentrations and in both cases, it showed strong antioxidant activity even at nanomolar concentrations, making it an extremely effective free radical scavenger. Studies on related compounds are also described. Grant Funding Source : HHMI, Sherman Fairchild Foundation, NSF (CHE 0521237)