Solubilities of formononetin and daidzein in organic solvents: Effect of molecular structure and interaction on solvation process

Physicochemical properties and in vitro release of formononetin nano-particles by ultrasonic probe-assisted precipitation in four polar organic solvents

Although formononetin has a considerable biological activity, its therapeutic use is limited by its low solubility. Formononetin was dissolved in ethanol, methanol, N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF), and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) in this investigation, the antisolvent precipitation procedure with the assistance of an external ultrasonic probe was used to manufacture the formononetin nano-particles. The ideal parameters for response surface BBD optimization are as follows: feed volume flow rate of 6 mL/min; ultrasonic power of 860 W; and liquid-liquid ratio of 1:12.5. The formononetin nano-particles have a smaller particle diameter than raw sample; the lowest size can be as small as (329 ± 1.99) nm, which is 45 times smaller than raw. An in vitro digestion test using a solution that simulated intestinal solution revealed that the release rate of the nano-particle was 1.75 times than that of the raw formononetin. The formononetin nano-particles generated by the aforementioned four solvents have the following order of diameter: ethanol > methanol > DMF > DMSO. This study provided a technical reference for the functional food components in deep processing.

Study of the Interactions between MeOH and Daidzein at the Molecular Level

In this study, the interactions between daidzein and methanol were studied to investigate isoflavone extraction. The complexes of MeOH-daidzein = 1:1, 2:1, 4:1, and 7:1 were studied using DFT/B3LYP-D3. According to the findings of this study, daidzein can act as a hydrogen bond donor as well as an acceptor. Binding energies demonstrate that more MeOH molecules interacting with daidzein could give more stability to the system. The strengths of the hydrogen bonds reveal that daidzein prefers to act as a hydrogen bond donor than an acceptor. The atoms in molecules (AIM) topological analysis was performed to analyze the nature of the hydrogen bonds. Moreover, daidzein, genistein, and glycitein are the most common soybean isoflavones, and their properties during extraction were also studied. The binding energies show that the soy isoflavone genistein is more reactive with the solvent than daidzein, followed by glycitein. The extraction conditions of the three common soy isoflavones in MeOH solution were obtained at 321, 328, and 348 K for genistein, daidzein, and glycitein, respectively. The generalized Kohn-Sham energy decomposition analysis (GKS-EDA) results indicate that the solute-solvent molecular interactions are typical hydrogen bonds with predominantly electrostatic and exchange energies in nature.

Effect of solvent polarity on the Ultrasound Assisted extraction and antioxidant activity of phenolic compounds from habanero pepper leaves (Capsicum chinense) and its identification by UPLC-PDA-ESI-MS/MS

Phenolic compounds are secondary metabolites involved in plant adaptation processes. The development of extraction procedures, quantification, and identification of this compounds in habanero pepper (Capsicum chinense) leaves can provide information about their accumulation and possible biological function. The main objective of this work was to study the effect of the UAE method and the polarity of different extraction solvents on the recovery of phenolic compounds from C. chinense leaves. Quantification of the total phenolic content (TPC), antioxidant activity (AA) by ABTS+ and DPPH radical inhibition methods, and the relation between the dielectric constant (ε) as polarity parameter of the solvents and TPC using Weibull and Gaussian distribution models was analyzed. The major phenolic compounds in C. chinense leaves extracts were identified and quantified by UPLC-PDA-ESI-MS/MS. The highest recovery of TPC (24.39 ± 2.41 mg GAE g-1 dry wt) was obtained using MeOH (50%) by UAE method. Correlations between TPC and AA of 0.89 and 0.91 were found for both radical inhibition methods (ABTS+ and DPPH). The Weibull and Gaussian models showed high regression values (0.93 to 0.95) suggesting that the highest phenolic compounds recovery is obtained using solvents with "ε" values between 35 and 52 by UAE. The major compounds were identified as N-caffeoyl putrescine, apigenin, luteolin and diosmetin derivatives. The models presented are proposed as a useful tool to predict the appropriate solvent composition for the extraction of phenolic compounds from C. chinense leaves by UAE based on the "ε" of the solvents for future metabolomic studies.