Design, Synthesis and Biological Activities of Dihydroaurones

To widen aurones applicability in achromatic food and cosmetic applications, a series of dihydroaurones were designed to mimic natural aurones as well as synthetic aurones. Dihydroaurones have been synthesized from the corresponding aurones by hydrogenation. These dihydroaurones and their corresponding aurones were screened for antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and tyrosinase enzyme inhibitory activity. Synthesized dihydroaurones (3b-f) displayed superior antioxidant activity in superoxide free radical scavenging assay than the standard gallic acid. Dihydroaurones (3b-f) also exhibited significant tyrosinase enzyme inhibitory activity and two dihydroaurones (3h, 3j) showed promising 5-lipoxygenase inhibitory activity.