Powering the activity of natural phenol compounds by bioinspired chemical manipulation

Bio-based manipulation of polyphenols scaffolds like thiol conjugation, amino compounds condensation, or selenylation results in a marked improvement of their antioxidant activity, without conferring appreciable toxicity, and inducing in most cases unexpected interesting properties including photoresponsiveness, ability of forming films with prooxidant activity or peculiar chromophores. Enhanced antioxidant potency was also obtained by activation of phenolic materials from agricultural or food industry wastes under acid hydrolytic conditions. These results provide the basis of innovative strategies for the development of food supplements and/or functional foods, and exploitation of phenolic materials in the implementation of biomedical devices and smart packaging.