Solvent effects on the absorption and fluorescence spectra of rhaponticin: experimental and theoretical studies

Rhaponticin (RH) possesses a variety of pharmacological activities including potent antitumor, antitumor-promoting, antithrombotic, antioxidant and vasorelaxant effects. The fundamental photophysics of RH is not well understood. In this work, solvent effect on the photoluminescence behavior of RH was studied by fluorescence and absorption spectra. The bathchromic shift was observed in absorption and fluorescence spectra with the increase of solvents polarity, which implied that transition involved was π→π. A quantitative estimation of the contribution from different solvatochromic parameters, like normalized transition energy value (E(T)(N)), was made using the linear stokes shift (Δν) relationship based on the Lippert-Suppan equation. The ground state and excited state dipole moments were calculated by quantum-mechanical second-order perturbation method as a function of the dielectric constant (ε) and refractive index (n). The result was found to be 2.23 and 3.67D in ground state and excited state respectively. The density functional theory (DFT) was used to obtain the most stable structure, electronic excitation energy, dipole moments and charge distribution. The analysis revealed that the RH exhibited strong photoinduced intramolecular charge transfer (ICT), and the intermolecular hydrogen bonding ability of the solvent was the most important parameter to characterize the photophysics behavior of RH. The hydrogen bonding effect occurred at the localized electron-acceptor oxygen at the glycoside bond. The experimental and theoretical results would help us better understand the photophysical properties of RH.