Controlled Synthesis and Development of Higher-order Functional Biomass Polyphenols

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16H04107
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Organic chemistry
• Research Institution: Tokyo Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Ohmori Ken 東京工業大学, 理学院, 准教授 (50282819)
• Research Collaborator: Suzuki Keisuke ; Misaka Takumi
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: ポリフェノール / 天然有機化合物 / フラボノイド / カテキン / 有機合成

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Although natural polyphenols have long played a part in human life as ingredients of wine, tea, or herbal medicines, it was only recently that their biological functions have been unveiled at the molecular level. The realization that specific interactions of polyphenols with biomolecules, such as proteins, exert powerful biological activities has stimulated the search for new pharmaceutical entities derived from polyphenolic entities. These investigations, however, are often hampered by the difficulty in isolating the requisite compounds in pure and structurally defined form, largely because their procurement has relied on natural sources, e.g., plant extracts. This study successfully offers one of synthetic solutions to provide such compounds, in particular, doubly-linked oligomeric flavans. The present study is based on an orthogonal synthetic strategy coupled with an annulation method, enabling efficient accesses to various types of flavan oligomers.

Free Research Field

有機合成化学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究により、これまで入手困難であった複雑な構造を有する様々なフラバンオリゴマーの合成が自在かつ簡便にできるようになった。これにより、従来いわゆる「物質」として、ある組成を持った混合物のまま取り扱われてきたポリフェノールを、純度が高く構造の定まった標品として供給することができるようになった。今後はそれぞれの生理活性や機能評価を進めることが可能となり、これまで未知であった個々の化合物の化学的特性が分子レベルで明らかになるものと期待される。これらの成果は、従来興味を示さなかった産業界や学術領域にも多大なインパクトをもたらすものと予想される。