Facile synthesis of 8-arylated quercetin derivatives and biological activity evaluation

•Facile assembly of a small library of 8-arylated quercetin derivatives via Suzuki-Miyaura reaction are realized.•8-arylated quercetin derivatives were tested against 3 types of human cancer cell lines (MGC-803, HCC827, and OVCAR-3) in vitro.•Fluorine modification provides the optimum compounds 5h against MGC-803 and HCC827, 6g against OVCAR-3 cancer cell lines at µmol/L level.•The more of phenolic hydroxyl number, the better antioxidant activities.