Isolation, spectroscopic and density functional theory studies of 7-(4-methoxyphenyl)-9H-furo[2,3-f]chromen-9-one: A new flavonoid from the bark of Millettia ovalifolia

•Isolation of a new flavonoid; 7-(4-methoxyphenyl)-9H-furo[2,3-f]chromen-9-one.•First comparative theoretical and experimental study on flavonoid.•Experimental and theoretical IR, UV and NMR show excellent correlation.•IA, EA, EN and HOMO–LUMO gap estimation at B3LYP/6-31G(d,p).

The phytochemical examination of chloroform soluble fraction (FX2) of methanolic extract of bark of Millettia ovalifolia yielded a new flavonoid; 7-(4-methoxyphenyl)-9H-furo [2,3-f]chromen-9-one (1). Compound 1 is characterized by spectroscopic analytical techniques such as UV, IR, 1D, 2D NMR spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry. A theoretical model is also developed for obtaining geometric, electronic and spectroscopic properties of 1. The geometry optimization and harmonic vibration simulations have been carried out at B3LYP/6-31G(d,p). The vibrational spectrum of compound 1 shows nice correlation with the experimental IR spectrum, through a scaling factor of 0.9613. 1H and 13C NMR chemical shifts are simulated using Cramer’s re-parameterized function WP04 at 6-31G(d,p) basis set, and correlate nicely with the experimental chemical shifts.

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