Syntheses of Resveratrol and its Hydroxylated Derivatives as Radical Scavenger and Tyrosinase Inhibitor

Eight hydroxylated stilbene derivatives including resveratrol, desoxyrhapontigenin and piceatannol as potential radical scavenger and tyrosinase inhibitor are synthesized using optimized Wittig-Horner reaction for excellent trans-selectivity in good yields. Antioxidant activity was tested against ABTS radical and tyrosinase inhibitory activity was performed with L-tyrosine as the substrate based on previous procedure with some modification. In general, catecholic stilbenes showed stronger activity against ABTS radical and resorcinolic moiety showed stronger tyrosinase inhibitory activity. Synthetic piceatannol which containing both catecholic and resorcinolic moieties showed the strongest activity in both as ABTS radical scavenger and tyrosinase inhibitor with IC₅₀ values of 4.1 and 8.6\;μM , respectively.