Tannins are natural compounds that have historically been used in the tanning of leather. In the scientific literature, one finds many reports of their possible beneficial health effects, although these are not always unequivocally confirmed. In order to gain a better insight into their proposed anticancer potential, we studied the scavenging capacity of the basic tannin building blocks against various chemical carcinogens of the epoxy type. The reactivity of gallic acid, ellagic acid, and epicathechin was examined using quantum mechanical calculations at the Hartree-Fock level of theory in conjunction with flexible basis sets and implicit solvation models. The monomeric tannin building blocks exhibited significant scavenging potential, with epicatechin presenting the best scavenger, thus encouraging and guiding future experimental studies of their anticarcinogenic properties.

中文翻译：

---

丹宁酸作为化学致癌物潜在清除剂的基本组成部分：一项计算研究。

单宁是历史上一直用于皮革鞣制的天然化合物。在科学文献中，人们发现了许多关于它们可能有益健康的报道，尽管并非总是明确地证实这些报道。为了更好地了解其拟议的抗癌潜力，我们研究了基本单宁结构单元对各种环氧型化学致癌物的清除能力。没食子酸，鞣花酸和表儿茶素的反应性是在Hartree-Fock理论水平上使用量子力学计算，结合灵活的基础集和隐式溶剂化模型进行检查的。单体单宁构建基块具有明显的清除潜力，其中表儿茶素是最好的清除剂，