Determination of diastereomerization barrier of some flavanones by high-performance liquid chromatography methods

The rate constants and activation energy barriers ΔG# of diastereomerization reaction of flavanones: naringin, narirutin, hesperidin and neohesperidin were determined. The stopped-flow HPLC (SFM-HPLC), dynamic HPLC (D-HPLC) and enantioselective HPLC combined with the classical kinetic method were applied for determination of these parameters. It was found that the rate constants of diastereomerization were about eight times higher for naringin and narirutin (1.9 × 10−5 s−1) than for hesperidin and neohesperidin (2.4 × 10−6 s−1). No significant differences in the rate of diastereomerization were found between neohesperidosides and corresponding rutinosides.