Microbial metabolism of prenylated apigenin derivatives

Prenylated flavonoids are rich in structural variety and pharmacological activity. It has been reported that the introduction of a prenyl group into the flavonoids could improve their biochemical and pharmacological properties. Many prenylated apigenins have been shown to exhibit significant antitumor, anticonvulsant, anti-inflammatory and vascular protective properties, but their biological activities are often limited by their poor water solubility. Microbial transformation is a useful method to modify chemical structures of natural products to derivatives which are difficult to produce synthetically, as well as to improve the solubility and biological activities. The aim of our study is to identify more polar metabolites of the bioactive prenylated apigenin derivatives through microbial metabolism. The detailed procedure of fermentation, isolation and structure elucidation of these metabolites will be presented.