The O-methylated flavonoids or methoxyflavonoids are flavonoids with methylations on hydroxyl groups (methoxy bonds). O-methylation has an effect on the solubility of flavonoids.
Enzymes
O-methylated flavonoids formation implies the presence of specific O-methyltransferase (OMT) enzymes which accept a variety of substrates.[1] Those enzymes mediate the O-methylation on a specific hydroxyl group, like on 4' (example in Catharanthus roseus[2]) or 3' (example in rice[3]) positions. Those positions can be ortho, meta, para and there can be a special 3-O-methyltransferase for the 3-OH position. Calamondin orange (Citrus mitis) exhibits all of those activities.[4]
^Harborne, J.B. (1967). "Comparative biochemistry of the flavonoids-IV.: Correlations between chemistry, pollen morphology and systematics in the family plumbaginaceae". Phytochemistry. 6 (10): 1415–28. doi:10.1016/S0031-9422(00)82884-8.