A Review on Flavonoid Apigenin: Dietary Intake, ADME, Antimicrobial Effects, and Interactions with Human Gut Microbiota.

Minqian Wang,Jenni Firrman,Linshu Liu,Kit Yam

doi:10.1155/2019/7010467

Abstract

Apigenin is a flavonoid of low toxicity and multiple beneficial bioactivities. Published reviews all focused on the findings using eukaryotic cells, animal models, or epidemiological studies covering the pharmacokinetics, cancer chemoprevention, and drug interactions of apigenin; however, no review is available on the antimicrobial effects of apigenin. Research proves that dietary apigenin passes through the upper gastrointestinal tract and reaches the colon after consumption. For that reason, it is worthwhile to study the potential interactions between apigenin and human gut microbiota. This review summarizes studies on antimicrobial effects of apigenin as well as what has been reported on apigenin and human gut microbiota. Various levels of effectiveness have been reported on apigenin's antibacterial, antifungal, and antiparasitic capability. It has been shown that apigenin or its glycosides are degraded into smaller metabolites by certain gut bacteria which can regulate the human body after absorption. How apigenin contributes to the structural and functional changes in human gut microbiota as well as the bioactivities of apigenin bacterial metabolites are worth further investigation.

Highlights

Flavonoids are a type of phytochemicals called polyphenols, which are the secondary metabolites produced by plants [1]
Was apigenin not mutagenic [52], it protected against multiple genotoxic agents, such as sodium azide, 9-amino acridine [11, 53]
In the yeast deletion assay using mutagens ethyl methanesulfonate and acridine, the inhibition rates were from 4% to 57.7% [53]

Summary

Introduction

Flavonoids are a type of phytochemicals called polyphenols, which are the secondary metabolites produced by plants [1]. Plants possess a defense mechanism to protect against UV-B and ward off microbial infection and herbivory [2]. “The Handbook of Natural Flavonoids” published in 1999 contains information on 6467 known flavonoid structures with formulae, references, and information on biological activities [3]. Among the over 6000 different flavonoids, quercetin, kaempferol, myricetin, apigenin, and luteolin are the five most ubiquitous plant flavonoids [4]. 4󸀠,5,7-trihydroxy-flavone (Figure 1), is one of the predominant monomeric flavonoids found in a daily diet [5]. Based on the chemical structure of its backbone, apigenin is a flavone, one of the subclasses of flavonoids. Apigenin has gained attention among researchers partly due to its low toxicity and multiple beneficial bioactivities

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion