Abstract
Prenylated flavonols are known as phytoestrogen and have good bioactivties. However, their abundances in nature are pretty low. It is required to find an efficient synthesis technique. Icariin is a prenylated flavonol glycoside with low cost. It can be used to synthesize different prenylated flavonols. A combination of cellulase and trifluoacetic acid hydrolysis could effectively remove rhamnose and glucose from icariin. Icaritin, anhydroicaritin and wushanicaritin were the leading prenylated flavonol products. Their affinities to estrogen receptors α and β were predicted by docking study. The weak affinity of wushanicaritin indicated that prenyl hydroxylation impaired its affinity to estrogen receptor β. The prenyl cyclization led to a loss of affinity to both receptors. The interactions between icaritin and ligand binding cavity of estrogen receptor β were simulated. π-π stacking and hydrophobic forces were predicted to be the dominant interactions positioning icaritin, which induced the helix (H12) forming an activated conformation.