Ethanol and water are the solvents most commonly used to extract flavonoids from propolis. Do hydrogen-bonding interactions exist between flavonoids and ethanol/water? In this work, this question was addressed by using density functional theory (DFT) to provide information on the hydrogen-bonding interactions between flavonoids and ethanol/water. Chrysin and Galangin were chosen as the representative flavonoids. The investigated complexes included chrysin-H2O, chrysin-CH3CH2OH, galangin-H2O and galangin-CH3CH2OH dyads. Molecular geometries, hydrogen-bond binding energies, charges of monomers and dyads, and topological analysis were studied at the B3LYP/M062X level of theory with the 6-31++G(d,p) basis set. The main conclusions were: (1) nine and ten optimized hydrogen-bond geometries were obtained for chrysin-H2O/CH3CH2OH and galangin-H2O/CH3CH2OH complexes, respectively. (2) The hydrogen atoms except aromatic H1 and H5 and all of the oxygen atoms can form hydrogen-bonds with H2O and CH3CH2OH. Ethanol and water form strong hydrogen-bonds with the hydroxyl, carbonyl and ether groups in chrysin/galangin and form weak hydrogen-bonds with aromatic hydrogen atoms. Except in structures labeled A and B, chrysin and galangin interact more strongly with H2O than CH3CH2OH. (3) When chrysin and galangin form hydrogen-bonds with H2O and CH3CH2OH, charge transfers from the hydrogen-bond acceptor (H2O and CH3CH2OH in structures A, B, G, H, I, J) to the hydrogen-bond donor (chrysin and galangin in structure A, B, G, H, I, J). The stronger hydrogen-bond makes the hydrogen-bond donor lose more charge (A> B> G> H> I> J). (4) Most of the hydrogen-bonds in chrysin/galangin-H2O/CH3CH2OH complexes may be considered as electrostatic dominant, while C-O2···H in structures labeled E and C-O5···H in structures labeled J are hydrogen-bonds combined of electrostatic and covalent characters. H9, H7, and O4 are the preferred hydrogen-bonding sites.
Keywords: Density functional theory; Extraction; Flavonoids; Hydrogen-bond; Propolis.