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Review
. 2022 Mar 14:9:445-469.
doi: 10.1016/j.toxrep.2022.03.011. eCollection 2022.

An ethnopharmacological review on the therapeutical properties of flavonoids and their mechanisms of actions: A comprehensive review based on up to date knowledge

Doha H Abou Baker  1
Affiliations
Review

An ethnopharmacological review on the therapeutical properties of flavonoids and their mechanisms of actions: A comprehensive review based on up to date knowledge

Doha H Abou Baker. Toxicol Rep. .

Abstract

Flavonoids -a class of low molecular weight secondary metabolites- are ubiquitous and cornucopia throughout the plant kingdom. Structurally, the main structure consists of C6-C3-C6 rings with different substitution patterns so that many sub-classes are obtained, for example: flavonols, flavonolignans, flavonoid glycosides, flavans, anthocyanidins, aurones, anthocyanidins, flavones, neoflavonoids, chalcones, isoflavones, flavones and flavanones. Flavonoids are evaluated to have drug like nature since they possess different therapeutic activities, and can act as cardioprotective, antiviral, antidiabetic, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, anticancer, and also work against Alzheimer's disease and others. However, information on the relationship between their structure and biological activity is scarce. Therefore, the present review tries to summarize all the therapeutic activities of flavonoids, their mechanisms of action and the structure activity relationship.

Keywords: Flavonoids; Mechanism of action; Structure; Structure activity relationship; Therapeutical activities.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

ga1
Graphical abstract
Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flavonoids subclasses and their representative flavonoids.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
A) Flavonoid therapeutical actions. B) Effects of flavonoids on many diseases.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Flavonoid mechanism of anti-Alzheimer activity.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Summary of anti-Alzheimer structure activity relationships of flavonoids.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Flavonoid mechanism of antidepressant activity.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Summary of antioxidant structure-activity relationships of flavonoids.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Flavonoid mechanism of anti-inflammatory activity.
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Summary of anti-inflammatory structure-activity relationships of flavonoids.
Fig. 9
Fig. 9
Flavonoid mechanism of hepatoprotective activity.
Fig. 10
Fig. 10
Summary of hepatoprotective structure-activity relationships of flavonoids.
Fig. 11
Fig. 11
Flavonoid mechanism of antihypertensive activity.
Fig. 12
Fig. 12
Summary of antihypertensive structure-activity relationships of flavonoids.
Fig. 13
Fig. 13
Flavonoid mechanism of cardioprotective activity.
Fig. 14
Fig. 14
Flavonoid mechanism of gastroprotective activity.
Fig. 15
Fig. 15
Flavonoid mechanism of antidiabetic activity.
Fig. 16
Fig. 16
Summary of antioxidant structure-activity relationships of flavonoids.
Fig. 17
Fig. 17
Flavonoid mechanism of antifungal activity.
Fig. 18
Fig. 18
Summary of structure-activity relationships of taxifolin as antifungal agents.
Fig. 19
Fig. 19
Flavonoid mechanism of anticancer activity.
Fig. 20
Fig. 20
Structure activity relationship of cytisine-flavonoid conjugates as potent anti-breast cancer agent.
Fig. 21
Fig. 21
Different actions of flavonoid on bacterial cells.
Fig. 22
Fig. 22
Summary of antibacterial structure-activity relationships of A) chalcones, B) flavans, C) flavanols, D) flavonols and E) flavones.
Fig. 23
Fig. 23
Different actions of flavonoid on CoV.
Fig. 24
Fig. 24
Interaction sites in kaempferol with CoV catalytic site by formation of hydrogen bond.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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