Flavonoids are a kind of secondary metabolite of plants, which are widely distributed in almost all plants owing to huge diversity in the category and configuration. Flavonoids, with unique chemical structures, are bearing many important physiological and biochemical effects on mammals and other types of cells. Adequate intakes of flavonoids are reported to be associated with reduced risks of cancer, tumor, car-diovascular disease, lipid peroxidation and osteoporosis. With increasing research of the structure-activity relationship, functionary mechanism of partial pharmacological actions is discovered. This progress provides a theoretical basis of flavonoids for their application to medicine and food industry, and certainly accelerates their development. In this essay, the physiological activities and research advance in synthesis of flavonoids are summarized.

Key words: flavonoid, physiological activity, synthesis, drug