Explore the effect of the structure-activity relationship and dose-effect relationship on the antioxidant activity of licorice flavonoids

Licorice flavonoids (LCF) are one of the homologous substances of medicine and food, which have good antioxidant activity. However, the molecular mechanism affecting its antioxidant activity remains unclear. Therefore, this study used theoretical calculations and experimental verification to investigate the molecular mechanism of LCF antioxidants. Network pharmacology, molecular docking and pharmacodynamic theory studies showed that the structure of antioxidants in LCF has a good structure-activity relationship with antioxidant activity, which were verified by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. In vitro antioxidant experiments showed that isoliquiritigenin, isoliquiritin and licochalcone B had significant scavenging effects on DPPH, ABTS and FRAP free radicals, and displayed good antioxidant activity with a certain structure-activity and dose-effect relationship. In conclusion, the structure-activity relationship and dose-effect relationship were found to affect the antioxidant activity of LCF in this study, which provides a new perspective on the development of natural antioxidants.