Biological Activity of Phenolics in Plant Cells

Marc Coumans, Yves Baissac, Patrick Doumas, and Christian Jay-Allemand 

In this review, with the more recent and demonstrative data, we depict the biochemical subcellular mechanisms in which phenolics are involved. To be more exhaustive and informative, mechanisms described in animal cells were also considered, opening new doors for a better understanding of their physiological functions in eukaryotic cells and 

As the cellular functions of phenolics depend not only on their chemical structure or physical properties but also on their localization inside the cell, several questions might need to be addressed for a better understanding of their putative roles Where are they synthesized How are they translocated within the cell and between cells or tissues Do they diffuse toward the cell membrane or wall structures Are their fluxes controlled through specific vesicles in the cell or carriers in the tissues  

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Higher plants produce diverse chemicals such as alkaloids, terpenoids, and phenolic compounds (phenylpropanoids and flavonoids) in secondary metabolism. Among these chemicals, benzylisoquinoline alkaloids (BIAs) are very important in medicine due to their high biological activities. However, extraction yields from plants are low because most of these metabolites accumulate at low levels in plant cells. There has been increasing interest in the microbial... 

In recent years, numerous applications of such peroxidase-catalyzed oxidative coupling of phenols and aromatic amines have been reported (Table 7). These peroxidase-catalyzed biotransformations lead to modified natural products with high biological activities [110-118]. Several examples have also been described for the oxidative coupling of phenols with peroxidases and other oxidative enzymes from a variety of fungal and plant sources as whole cell systems... 

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