Natural acridones and coumarins as free radical scavengers: Mechanistic and kinetic studies

In this work, we combined density functional theory (Le., the M05-2X/6-311 + + G(d,p)//M05-2X/6-31 + G(d) level) and statistical rate models to investigate free-radical scavenging activities of natural compounds found in Paramignya trimera root four coumarins (i.e., paratrimerins E, paratrimerins F, pandanusin A, xanthyletin) and three acridones (i.e., citrusinine-I, 5-hydroxynoracronycin, paratrimerin C). Reaction mechanisms, including hydrogen atom transfer (HAT), single electron transfer (SET), proton transfer (PT) and radical adduct formation (RAF), were studied thermodynamically and kinetically in different environments: gas-phase, water and pentyl ethanoate (PEA). 5-hydroxynoracronycin is found as the most potential antioxidant with the HAT as the most dominant mechanism in the considered media.