Tannins are plant natural products that have molecular weights of at least 500 g/mol, that have more than one phenolic moiety, and that form stable complexes with proteins.  Tannins are constituents of the larger class of plant products known as polyphenolics, but tannins are unique in their ability to precipitate proteins.  They are also potent antioxidants and chelate metals such as iron or copper.  We are interested in the bioactivities of tannins found in the human diet (tea, wine, chocolate, fruits) and in the ecological significance of tannins found in natural systems (soils, herbivory). In particular, we use purified tannins to establish structure-activity relationships with the long term goal of understanding of tannins as individual bioactive compounds.  In the diagram above, we speculate on how the genetically determined structure of Populus tannins is achieved by specific biosynthetic enzymology and affects important bioactivities.

Many of the analytical tools that we use can be found in the Tannin Handbook (see menu tab). 

  ====================================================================================================

 Our lab is supported in part by a Specific Cooperative Agreement between Miami University and the

USDA-ARS-Appalachian Farming Systems Research Center