Prenyl flavonoids and membrane permeability

Flavonoid compounds represent a well known class of naturally occurring phenolic compounds. Among this group of phytochemicals, prenyl flavonoids are retaining more and more attention from the scientific community Those compounds display a narrow distribution in the plant kingdom and are characterized by increased lipophilic properties. This confers to them a strong affinity to biological membranes. The design of new techniques for the organic synthesis oi prenyl flavonoids allowed us to build a collection of reference compounds. Those compounds were tested for their activity on the mitochondrial inner membrane. Prenyl flavonoids inhibit the electronic transfer and act as uncouplers of oxidative phosphorylation. Their mode of actions seems to be mostly chaotropic.