Prior studies mentioned that extracts of polyphenolics-abundant edible flora might provide compositions of reversible electron shuttles for bioenergy extraction; however, detailed mysteries behind such phenomena still remained open to be explored. This first-attempt study selected a medicinal herb Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi and its main flavonoid ingredients to quantitatively decipher their electron-mediating activities for bioenergy applications. The main ingredients with strong shuttling activities (e.g., baicalin, baicalein and wogonin) were chemical structure-associated to disclose electrochemical and bioenergetics characteristics for comparative analysis. Evidently, baicalin owned the most promising electron shuttling capabilities. Although extract of flavonoids-rich S. baicalensis Georgi also showed promising redox-mediating characteristics, typical ingredient-baicalein still exhibited high biotoxicity to bacterial CO₂ respirometric production, thereby resisting fully expression of electron transfer capabilities. Supplementation of baicalin and extract of S. baicalensis Georgi to microbial fuel cells (MFCs) was conducted to quantify such stimulating capabilities of bioelectricity generation. That is, with toxicity attenuation, processed flavonoids-rich medicinal herbs were possibly electroactive for bioenergy extraction due to favorable electron-shuttling activities.

先前的研究提到，富含多酚的食用菌群的提取物可能会为生物能提取提供可逆的电子穿梭物。但是，此类现象背后的详细奥秘仍然有待探索。这项首次尝试的研究选择了草药黄cut（Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi）及其主要类黄酮成分，以定量地解析其在生物能源应用中的电子介导活性。通过化学结构关联具有强大穿梭活性的主要成分（例如黄ical苷，黄ical素和沃戈宁）来揭示电化学和生物能特性，以进行比较分析。显然，黄ical苷拥有最有前途的电子穿梭能力。虽然提取物中富含类黄酮黄icalS。baicalensis Georgi还显示出有希望的介导氧化还原特性，典型成分黄ical素对细菌CO ₂呼吸测定法生产仍然表现出高生物毒性，从而抵抗了电子传递能力的充分表达。进行了黄ical苷和黄ical链球菌提取物向微生物燃料电池（MFCs）的补充，以量化这种刺激生物发电的能力。也就是说，由于毒性减弱，加工后的富含类黄酮的药草由于有利的电子穿梭活性而可能具有生物活性提取的电活性。