New insights into antiviral and cytotoxic potential of quercetin and its derivatives – A biochemical perspective

•Quercetin and its derivatives are potential flavonols with several biological effects.•In silico and in vitro screening shows quercetin derivatives as potential anti-influenza targets.•Quercetin derivatives targeted cap-binding site of PB2 of influenza viral RNA polymerase.•Quercetin 3′-glucuronide was found as a strong candidate inhibiting the influenza virus. Quercetin, a potential polyphenolic which possesses several biological effects. The influenza virus polymerase basic 2 (PB2) subunit of RNA polymerase responsible for replication, degree of virus conservation and active target site for designing specific antivirals. The quercetin derivatives downloaded from PubChem were screened using PyRX software configured with Vina Wizard, targeted on cap-binding site of the PB2 of influenza viral RNA polymerase. Among the PubChem library (total 97,585,747 compounds), 410 quercetin derivatives were screened using molecular docking (affinity: 100 µg/mL.