Enzymatic molecular modification of water-soluble polyphenols: Synthesis, structure, bioactivity and application

Abstract

The poor lipophilicity and instability of water-soluble polyphenols limit their bioavailability and application in food. However, increasing attention has been given to water-soluble polyphenols due to their multiple biological activities, which prompts the modification of the structure of water-soluble polyphenols to improve their lipophilicity and stability and enable more efficient application. This review presents the enzymatic biosynthesis of lipophilic derivatives of water-soluble polyphenols, which will change the molecular structure of water-soluble polyphenols based on the loss of hydroxyl or carboxyl groups. Therefore, the effects of reaction factors on the structure of polyphenol derivatives and the change in their bioactivities will be further analyzed. Previous studies have shown that lipases, solvent systems, and hydrophobic groups are major factors influencing the synthesis and lipophilicity of polyphenol derivatives. Moreover, the biological activities of polyphenol derivatives were changed to a certain extent, such as through the enhancement or weakening of antioxidant activity in different systems and the increase in anti-influenza virus activity and antibacterial activity. The improvement of lipophilicity also expands polyphenol application in food. This review may contribute to the efficient synthesis of lipophilic derivatives of water-soluble polyphenols to extend the utilization and application range of polyphenols.

Keywords:

• Water-soluble polyphenols
• lipophilic derivatives
• lipase
• Bioactivities
• application

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Shan Wang: Writing – original draft. Song Zhu: Writing – review & editing, Funding acquisition. Yue Li: Writing – review & editing. Chaoyang Ma: Writing – review & editing, Funding acquisition. Dejian Huang: Writing – review & editing. Shangwei Chen: Writing – review & editing, Supervision. Hongxin Wang: Writing – review & editing, Supervision.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported financially by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31871794, 32172197, 32172234), the Innovative Project of the State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology (SKLF-ZZA-202106), and program of “Collaborative Innovation Center of Food Safety and Quality Control in Jiangsu Province”, China.