Abstract

Flavonoids are plant products abundant in every day diets and are claimed to be beneficial for the human health. After absorption, flavonoids are transported by the serum albumin (SA), the most abundant carrier blood protein, through the formation of flavonoids-SA complex. This review deals with the current state of knowledge on the flavonoids-SA complex forthe past 10 years, mainly involving multi-spectroscopic techniques and molecular dynamics simulation studies to explore the binding mechanism, thermodynamics and structural aspects of flavonoids, binding to SA. Especially, the novel methods such as capillary electrophoresis, high performance affinity chromatography approach, native mass spectrometry, and microscale thermophoresis, used in the characterization of the interaction between flavonoids and SA as well as flavonoid-based fluorescent probe for the SA measurement, are also included in this review.

Keywords: Flavonoids, serum albumin, binding interaction, flavonoid-based fluorescent probe, thermodynamics, hydroxylation.