Radical-scavenging polyphenols: new strategies for their synthesis

Abstract

New strategies for the synthesis of polyphenols, compounds with antioxidant properties contained in every kind of plants, are discussed. Syntheses of different classes of polyphenols, namely ubiquinones, present in many natural systems in which electron-transfer mechanisms are involved, hydroxy-tyrosol, one of the main components of the phenol fraction in olives, and flavonoids, widespread in the plant kingdom, were approached by simple and environmentally sustainable methods.