Flavonoids – organic compounds with strong interactions towards uranium

Flavonoids belong to a class of secondary plant metabolites. They are most commonly known for their antioxidant activity. Next to chlorophyll flavonoids are the most important group of visible plant pigments.
We studied by use of spectrophotometric techniques the interaction of several flavonoids with uranium. The change in the spectral properties of the flavonoids was used to determine the stability constants. Spectra were evaluated with the factor analysis program Specfit. All spectra of flavonoids show strong change with increasing uranium concentration at constant pH. Stability constants were derived for quercetin, hesperetin, hesperidin, the aglycon of hesperetin. Hesperetin was obtained by hydrolytic splitting of the glycoside hesperidin.
The overall structure Isosbestic points in the absorption spectra indicate a clear interaction between the flavonoids and uranium(VI).
The most strong interaction was found for quercetin. The derived stability constant was assigned to be log β131 = 41.4 ± 0.4 at an ionic strength of 0.1 M for the reaction

UO22+ + C15H5O75- + 3 H+ → UO2C15H8O7 (1)

Hesperidin and hesperetin show much lower stability constants. For example the stability constant for the hesperetin complex at 0.1 M ionic strength was determined to be log β121 = 31.0 ± 0.6.
We assume that the complex formation occur by a ring formation, whereas quercitin forms a 6-membered ring between a phenolic group and the ketone oxygen in the benzopyran-4-one ring whereas hesperidin and hesperetin form 5-membered rings.