A O-Methylation of Flavones with Dimenthyl Carbonate (DMC)

Dietary flavonoids were studied, which have beneficial health effects in the human body. Flavonoid coumarin has an anti-coagulant ability that has been studied while assessing their biological activity. We studied a safe procedure to prepare numerous methylated flavones. The flavones that were used in the experiment were 6-hydroxyflavone and 7-hydoxyflavone. The flavones were methylated using dimethyl carbonate (DMC). The DMC was used as both the solvent and the reagent in the reaction. 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) was also added to the reaction. It played a role in the reaction by being a nucleophilic catalyst which reacts with the DMC and creates a more active methylating agent. This brings the activation energy down for the methylation reaction which helps the reaction move forward. The methylated flavones were isolated with high purity and with high yield. Also the Platelet Aggregometer was used for platelet aggregometry of the methylated flavones. Infrared spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) were used to compare the starting materials and final products to ensure the methylated flavones were produced