Research progress on drug metabolism of flavanoids / 中国中药杂志

ABSTRACT

Flavanoids are important phytochemistry compositions in foods and traditional Chinese medicines (TCM) and are mainly oxidized by CYP1A family in vivo. Some methoxyflavones could also be metabolized through demethylation. Usually, flavanoids own one or more phenolic hydroxyl group in their molecular structures, which facilitate conjugation with glucuronic acid and sulphuric acid, forming metabolites with good water-solubility to excrete. Natural flavanoids mainly exist in glycoside, and after oral ,they would be easily metabolized to aglycone by hydratase in gut microflora and then absorbed into blood. Besides, many flavanoids have strong inhibitory actions on Cytochrome P450 enzymes, which are significant mechanisms in cancer precaution and tumor inhibition. In this paper, we reviewed lots of articles and summarized metabolism characteristics of flavanoids and metabolism interaction with Cytochrome P450 enzymes.