BIOLOGICALLY POTENTIAL FLAVONES: A SUBGROUP OF FLAVONOIDS

ABSTRACT: Flavones are important class of flavonoids having wide range of biological activities like antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-oestrogenic, antimicrobial, anti-allergic, antioxidant, vascular, antitumor and cytotoxic activities. First cyclin dependent kinase inhibitor, flavopiridol which is a flavone is approved as orphan drug in Europe for the treatment of relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia. So these structural motifs may show potential activity to wide therapeutic conditions. Thereby synthesis of flavone is an important aspect in medicinal chemistry. This article covers the synthetic strategies available in the literature and their usefulness in terms of yield and reaction condition and the biological activity exerted by the natural and synthetic flavone derivatives and their probable mechanism of action. It is expected that this review may helpful for medicinal chemist in research regarding flavones with new therapeutic applications