
Flavonoids, benzo-γ -pyron derivatives with several hydroxyl groups attached to ring structures C6-C3-C6, are one of the most important groups of compounds occurring in plants. This family includes the categories of flavonols, flavanones, flavones, anthocyanidins, and isoflavones (as shown in Fig.1), and is known for its biological effects, including antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic, and antithrombotic actions. But interestingly, they are also a good class of analytical reagents for detecting metal ions. This is because all types of flavonoids possess three domains able to react with metal ions: the 3 -4 -dihydroxy system located on the B ring and the 3-hydroxy or 5-hydroxy groups and 4-carbonyl group in the C ring, which makes flavonoids can form complexes with some p-, d-, and f-electron metals. The formed complexes could be employed in the determination of these metal ions in different kinds of samples by various techniques[1]. Until now, various applications of flavonoid compounds as analytical reagents have been reported.
Analytical Applications of Flavonoid Compounds
The flavonoid compounds can act as chromogenic agents in spectrophotometric and fluorometric detection of metals, and can act as complexing modifiers in solid phase extraction for preconcentration and separation of metal ions and in adsorptive voltammetry for the determination of metals [1].
Chromogenic Agents: Flavonoids exhibit two major absorption bands in the ultra-violet/visible region (cinnamoyl system, band I; benzoyl system, band II) (as shown in Fig. 2). When the flavonoid compounds form complexes with the metal, these absorption spectra are shifted to the long-wavelength region, which make the basis of the determination of metals by UV-VIS spectrophotometry and spectrofluorimetry. Morin and quercetin can serve mainly as the chromogenic agents in analytical procedures for determination of Al(III), Cr(III), Fe(III), Zr(IV), Mo(VI), etc.
Complexing Modifiers in Solid Phase Extraction: Solid-phase extraction (SPE) using various sorbents has been developed for preconcentration and/or selective separation of the analyte before its determination, which is frequently necessary in analytical procedures in order to reduce the effect of interference present in the matrix. Among the many sorbents, complexing resins are especially interesting due to their higher selectivity. Flavonoid molecule can act as complexing reagents (or complexing modifiers) to produce complexing resins to separate and preconcentrate metals before analysis. For example, a sorbent of controlled-pore silica glass functionalized with quercetin was reported by Abou-El-Sherbini and Hassanien[2]. This sorbent was used for the separation and preconcentration of Mn(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), and Zn(II) at pH 7.5–8.5. In addition, silica gel sorbents with immobilized quercetin and morin were synthesized for sorption-spectrophotometric determination of Sn(IV) and Zr(IV), respectively.