Flavanols and proanthocyanidins

Kehn MA, Hammerstone JF, Schmitz HH (2005) Identification and quantitation of flavanols and proanthocyanidins in foods how good are the datas Clin Dev Immunol 12(1) 35-41... 

The vanillin procedure involves reaction of an aromatic aldehyde, vanillin, with the meta-substituted ring of flavanols to yield a red adduct. Although the vanillin assay is an easy and cheap assay to measure flavanols and proanthocyanidins, several aspects of the procedure need to be carefully considered to obtain reliable results. Catechin is commonly used to standardize the vanillin reaction, although both proanthocyanidins and catechin react with vanillin at different rates. Therefore,... 

Flavanols and procyanidins Flavanols, or flavan-3-ols, are synthesized via two routes, with (+) catechins formed from flavan-3,4-diols via leucoanthocyanidin reductase (LAR), and (—) epicatechins from anthocyanidins via anthocyanidin reductase (ANR) (see Fig. 5.4). These flavan-3-ol molecules are then polymerized to condensed tannins (proanthocyanidins or procyanidins), widely varying in the number and nature of their component monomers and linkages (Aron and Kennedy 2008 Deluc and others 2008). It is still not known whether these polymerization reactions happen spontaneously, are enzyme catalyzed, or result from a mixture of both. 

The flavan-3-ols most occurring in nature are (+)-catechin and (-)-epicatechin (EC), although gallocatechin and epigallocatechin have also been identified [42]. Proanthocyanidins (or condensed tannins) include oligo- and polymeric forms of the monomeric flavanols and will be examined later. Polymerization of monomeric flavanols can occur as a result of auto-oxidation, but more often it is catalyzed by polyphenoloxidase (PPO), an enzyme that is present in most plant tissues [43]. 

Flavanol oligomers and polymers are also called condensed tannins or proan-thocyanidins. The term tannin refers to their capacity to interact or react with proteins and precipitate them out. When heated under acidic conditions, these molecules release red anthocyanidin pigments, hence the term proanthocyanidins. The term leucoanthocyanidin, also referring to this particular property, is sometimes encountered in the literature. However, this should be restricted to another group of compounds, flavan 3,4-diols, which are intermediates in the biosynthetic pathway leading to flavanols and anthocyanins (Stafford and Lester 1984 Nakajima et al. 2001 Abrahams et al. 2003) but have never been isolated from grapes, presumably due to their instability. 

The precursors of these reactions are, on one hand, proanthocyanidins and, on the other hand, any kind of flavonoid that can act as a nucleophile. The latter include flavonols, dihydroflavonols, flavanol monomers, proanthocyanidins, and anthocyanins under their hemiketal form (for anthocyanin reactivity, see Chapter 9A). 

Evidence of such adducts in wine fractions has been provided, as detailed in Chapter 9A. These include F-A+ (Alcalde-Eon et al. 2006 Boido et al. 2006) and F-A-A+ (Alcalde-Eon et al. 2006) adducts based on different flavanol and anthocyanin units and (F) -A+ adducts deriving from different flavanols monomers and oligomers (Hayasaka and Kennedy 2003). Proanthocyanidins arising from these reactions cannot be distinguished from those extracted from grapes. However, detection of F-A+ adducts without prior fractionation (Morel-Salmi et al. 2006) confirmed the occurrence of the acid-catalyzed interflavanic bond breaking process in wines. 

Flavanols, snch as catechins and ohgomeric proanthocyanidins, are largely unglycosylated and occur naturally as the aglycone form. Proanthocyanidins are stable in the stomach in humans in vivcf but break down in vitro at pH 2 over several hours to monomeric flavanols and unidentified compounds. Most of the ingested proanthocyanidins and catechins therefore reach the small intestine intact. 

There is no final consensus on whether procyanidin biosynthesis is controlled thermodynamically or enzymatically. In either case proanthocyanidins are synthesized through sequential addition of flavan-3,4-diol units (in their reactive forms as carbocations or quinone methides) to a flavan-3-ol monomer [218]. Based on the latest findings there is some evidence that different condensation enzymes might exist which are specific for each type of flavan-3,4-diol [64] and that polymer synthesis would be subject to a very complex regulatory mechanism [63]. But so far, no enzyme synthetase systems have been isolated and enzymatic conversion of flavanols to proanthocyanidins could not be demonstrated in vitro [219]. If biosynthesis was thermodynamically controlled, the variation in proanthocyanidin composition could be explained by synthesis at different times or in different compartments [64], The hypothesis of a thermodynamically controlled biosynthesis is based on the fact that naturally and chemically synthesized procyanidin dimers occur as a mixture of 4—>8 and 4—>6 linked isomers in approximate ratios of 3-4 1 [220]. Porter [164] found analogous ratios of 4—>8 and 4—>6 linkages in proanthocyanidin polymers. 

Havanols are a wide group of polyphenols that include flavan-3-ols (e.g., catechin and proanthocyanidins), flavan-4-ols, and flavan-3,4-diols. They arise from plant secondary metabolism through condensation of phenylalanine derived from the shikimate pathway with malonyl-CoA obtained from citrate that is produced by the tricarboxylic acid cycle, leading to the formation of the key precursor in the flavonoids biosynthesis the naringenin chalcone. The exact nature of the molecular species that undergo polymerization and the mechanism of assembly in proanthocyanidins are still unknown. From a structural point of view, flavanols... 

Flavanol monomers and proanthocyanidins (syn. condensed tannins) are polyphe-nolic compounds derived from plant secondary metabolism being present in a wide variety of plants and plant-derived foods such as fruits, cereals, seeds, wines, ciders, teas, beers, and cocoa [1-7]. 

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