PRENYL FLAVONOIDS AND MEMBRANE-PERMEABILI TY

Flavonoid compounds represent a well known class of naturally occurrin g phenolic compounds. Among this group of phytochemicals, prenyl flavo noids are retaining more and more attention from the scientific commun ity Those compounds display a narrow distribution in the plant kingdom and are characterized by increased lipophilic properties. This confer s 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 tes ted for their activity on the mitochondrial inner membrane. Prenyl fla vonoids inhibit the electronic transfer and act as uncouplers of oxida tive phosphorylation. Their mode of actions seems to be mostly chaotro pic.