Flavanones, chalcones and dihydrochalcones - nature, occurrence and dietary burden

Abstract

This paper reviews the occurrence in foods of flavanones, chalcones and dihydrochalcones. The major dietary sources of flavanones and dihydrochalcones are citrus fruits and apples respectively. These compounds may make a greater contribution to the total daily intake of flavonoids than the more extensively studied flavonols. There are no data for plasma or tissue levels, but both endogenous and gut flora metabolites of both classes of compound are found in urine. For these reasons, these compounds deserve greater attention in epidemiological studies. © 2000 Society of Chemical Industry

The Occurrence, Fate and Biological Activities ofC-glycosyl Flavonoids in the Human Diet

“…The flavonoid family tree begins with seven heterocyclic backbone families differentiated by fundamental structural features usually related to the C-ring, such as its presence, carbon saturation and position of B-ring bonding (Tomás-Barberán and Clifford, 2000). These backbones are the flavan-3-ols, flavonols, flavones, flavanones, isoflavones, anthocyanidins and chalcones (Scalbert and Williamson, 2000), which are subsequently differentiated by the presence of functional moieties such as hydroxyl groups at multiple positions about the carbon backbone, allowing for a diverse array of possible structures.…”

Bioavailability in humans of the flavanones hesperidin and narirutin after the ingestion of two doses of orange juice

“…Their daily intake has not been precisely evaluated in different populations, but it could be high since citrus fruits or juices are products that are daily and largely consumed in the world, and that contain high amounts of flavanones. The content of hesperidin (hesperetin-7-O-rutinoside) and narirutin (naringenin-7-Orutinoside) in orange juice ranges from 200 to 590 mg=l and from 16 to 84 mg=l, respectively (Tomás-Barberán and Clifford, 2000). Thus one drink of orange juice can provide from 25 to 80 mg of flavanone aglycones.…”

“…Thus one drink of orange juice can provide from 25 to 80 mg of flavanone aglycones. According to Tomás-Barberán and Clifford (2000), the consumption of the entire fruit could even supply five-fold higher amounts of flavanones. These levels are quite high compared with the mean flavonol intake which has been estimated to about 25 mg=day in several European countries (Hertog et al, 1993;Pietta et al, 1996;Justesen et al, 1997).…”

Litchi Flavonoids: Isolation, Identification and Biological Activity

“…The stability of litchi anthocyanins increases with the number of methoxyls in the B-ring and decreases as the number of hydroxyls increases [6,19]. Glycosylation and acylation of the sugars also increase stability and, therefore, the diglycosides are more stable than their corresponding monoglycosides [31,32]. Among the most common anthocyaninidins, the most stable is malvidin, followed by peonidin, petunidin, cyanidin and delphinidin [6].…”