Selective in vitro and in silico enzymes inhibitory activities of phenolic acids and flavonoids of food plants: Relations with oxidative stress

•A detailed study on phenolic compounds.•Molecular weights of compounds are important factor on their AChE and BChE activities.•Enzymes inhibitory activities and relations with oxidative stress.•Enzymes inhibitory activities of phenolic acids and flavonoids of food plants. In this study, the inhibitory potentials of food originated 34 phenolic acids, and flavonoid compounds were screened against acetylcholinesterase, butyrylcholinesterase, urease, and tyrosinase enzymes. All compounds included in this study exhibited high antioxidant activity with an ignorable cytotoxic activity. In general, they also showed poor anti-urease and anti-tyrosinase activities. Compounds in aglycone form (quercetin, myricetin, chrysin, and luteolin) showed strong anticholinesterase activities. No relation was observed between the tested bioactivities except from the case that aglycone compounds exhibited a strong positive relationship between antioxidant activities and anticholinesterase activity. Interestingly, there was a relation between the molecular weights of aglycone compounds and their anticholinesterase activities. The study showed that flavonoids with molecular mass of 250–320 g/mol have high potential of anticholinesterase activities and are valuable for future experiments on animals and humans. Potential inhibitory effects of these molecules on target proteins were investigated using docking and molecular dynamics calculations.