Enhancement of biological activity through conversion of rutin to quercetin using acid treatment

Flavonoids attract much attention due to their various physiological properties and these compounds naturally exist as their glycoside forms. Rutin, one of the most abundant flavonoids in nature, is composed of the aglycone quercetin and the disaccharide rutinose. Although, there is a structural similarity in rutin and quercetin, there are some obvious differences in physical, chemical, and biological characters. It is reported that quercetin has a higher biological activity than other glycosidic quercetin derivatives. Thus, de‐glycosylation of rutin would be an important process for enhanced biological activities. Therefore, in this study, to convert rutin to quercetin, the effects of acid concentrations and solvents were investigated and biological activities were evaluated. As a results, when 80 % ethanol was used, the hydrolysis of rutin was more rapid than water as solvent for reaction. Hydrolysis of rutin was also accelerated as the acid concentration increased from 0.1 to 1.0 M of HCl. Anti‐oxidant, anti‐inflammatory, and anti‐adipogenic activities were increased with the increased conversion rate of rutin to quercetin. These results suggest that the acid treatment can be used as a process to improve the physiological activity of glycoside flavonoids. This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .