Alkylated Sesamol Derivatives as Potent Antioxidants.

Sesamol is a phenolic derivative. Its antioxidant activity is low than that of Trolox and depends on benzodioxole moiety. Thus, a molecular modification strategy through alkylation, inspired by natural and synthetic antioxidants, was studied by molecular modeling at the DFT/B3LYP level of theory by comparing the 6-31+G(d,p) and 6-311++G(2d,2p) basis sets. All proposed derivatives were compared to classical related antioxidants such as Trolox, t-butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and t-butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA). According to our results, molecular orbitals, single electron or hydrogen-atom transfers, spin density distributions, and alkyl substitutions at the ortho positions related to phenol moiety were found to be more effective than any other positions. The trimethylated derivative was more potent than Trolox. t-Butylated derivatives were stronger than all other alkylated derivatives and may be new alternative forms of modified antioxidants from natural products with applications in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and food industries.

Understanding the cytotoxicity or cytoprotective effects of biological and synthetic quinone derivatives by redox mechanism.

Quinones represent an important class of biological compounds, but are also involved with toxicological intermediates and among their hazardous effects include cytotoxicity, immunotoxicity, and carcinogenesis. The structure-toxicity relationship for quinone derivatives has been used to cytotoxicity or cytoprotective effects by redox mechanism is determined using quantum chemical calculations through the density functional theory (DFT). According to our DFT study, the electron acceptance is related with LUMO, electron affinity, and stabilization energy values. The highest spin density distribution in the heteroatoms is more favored for the more cytotoxic compounds. The electrophilic capacities of these compounds have been related with LUMO values. The cytotoxic properties of quinones are related to the stabilization energy after electron accepting by redox mechanism. Electron affinity is the most relevant parameter related to toxicity mechanism. Regioisomers has different electrophilic capacity. The electrophilicity increases on molecules containing electron-withdrawing groups (EWG) and reduces on molecules containing electron-donating groups (EDG). These results explain the toxic difference between natural and synthetic quinone derivatives and can be used in the design and study of new drugs.

The basic antioxidant structure for flavonoid derivatives.

An antioxidant structure-activity study is carried out in this work with ten flavonoid compounds using quantum chemistry calculations with the functional of density theory method. According to the geometry obtained by using the B3LYP/6-31G(d) method, the HOMO, ionization potential, stabilization energies, and spin density distribution showed that the flavonol is the more antioxidant nucleus. The spin density contribution is determinant for the stability of the free radical. The number of resonance structures is related to the π-type electron system. 3-hydroxyflavone is the basic antioxidant structure for the simplified flavonoids studied here. The electron abstraction is more favored in the molecules where ether group and 3-hydroxyl are present, nonetheless 2,3-double bond and carbonyl moiety are facultative.