Free radicals and antioxidants in food and in vivo: What they do and how they work |
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| Authors: | Barry Halliwell M Antonia Murcia Susanna Chirico Okezie I Aruoma |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Pharmacology Group , University of London Kings Colleqe , Manresa Road, London, SW3 6LX, UK;2. Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine , University of California, Davis Medical Center , 4301 X Street, Sacramento, CA, 95817;3. U.D. Bromatologia, Facultad de Veterinaria , Universidad de Murcia , Apartado de Correos 4021, Murcia, E 30080, Spain;4. Pharmacology Group , University of London Kings Colleqe , Manresa Road, London, SW3 6LX, UK |
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| Abstract: | A wide variety of oxygen free radicals and other reactive oxygen species can be formed in the human body and in food systems. Transition metal ions accelerate free‐radical damage. Antioxidant defenses, both enzymic and nonenzymic, protect the body against oxidative damage, but they are not 100% efficient, and so free‐radical damage must be constantly repaired. Nonenzymatic antioxidants are frequently added to foods to prevent lipid peroxidation. Several lipid antioxidants can exert prooxidant effects toward other molecules under certain circumstances, and so antioxidants for food and therapeutic use must be characterized carefully. Methods of measuring oxidative damage and trapping free radicals in vivo are briefly discussed. Such methods are essential in checking proposals that increased intake of food‐derived antioxidants (such as antioxidant vitamins) would be beneficial to humans. |
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| Keywords: | Oxygen radical lipid peroxidation oxidative stress hydroxyl radical hydrogen peroxide food antioxidants food preservation |
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