Stilbenes: Characterization, bioactivity, encapsulation and structural modifications. A review of their current limitations and promising approaches

Abstract

Stilbenes are phenolic compounds naturally synthesized as secondary metabolites by the shikimate pathway in plants. Research on them has increased in recent years due to their therapeutic potential as antioxidant, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, cardioprotective and anti-obesity agents. Amongst them, resveratrol has attracted the most attention, although there are other natural and synthesized stilbenes with enhanced properties. However, stilbenes have some physicochemical and pharmacokinetic problems that need to be overcome before considering their applications. Human clinical evidence of their bioactivity is still controversial due to this fact and hence, exhaustive basis science on stilbenes is needed before applied science. This review gathers the main physicochemical and biological properties of natural stilbenes, establishes structure-activity relationships among them, emphasizing the current problems that limit their applications and presenting some promising approaches to overcome these issues: the encapsulation in different agents and the structural modification to obtain novel stilbenes with better features. The bioactivity of stilbenes should move from promising to evident.

Keywords:

• Stilbenes
• synthesis
• physicochemical
• activity
• encapsulation
• structure

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, project AGL2017-86526-P (MCI/AEI/FEDER, UE) and by the “Programa de Ayudas a Grupos de Excelencia de la Región de Murcia, Fundación Séneca, Agencia de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Región de Murcia (Spain)” (Project 19893/GERM/15). This work is the result of a predoctoral contract for the training of research staff (for Silvia Navarro-Orcajada, number 21269/FPI/19) and an aid to postdoctoral training and improvement abroad (for Adrián Matencio, number 21229/PD/19) both financed by the Fundación Séneca (Región de Murcia, Spain).