Antioxidants are among the compounds that contribute for the body's redox homeostasis. They are being intensively studied for their health benefits, mainly due to their ability to scavenge free radicals. However, many questions can be raised related to their safety and effectiveness:
The book, Antioxidants Effects in Health: The Bright and the Dark Side, aims to evaluate the current scientific evidence on these topics. The book will be useful for everyone who is interested in antioxidants, namely researchers, health professionals, industry and government regulatory agencies; for students in phytochemistry, pharmacognosy, and natural product synthesis; and for experts in the formulation of herbal and natural pharmaceuticals.
The target audience have to face every day new challenges in a field that is in rapid growth, with continuous increase information on antioxidants, concerning their properties, content in foodstuffs, as well as in the health promoting or detrimental properties of these compounds. This book will introduce recent and updated information on antioxidants in a systematic way which will allow to easily compare the antioxidants and find a conductive line among different chapters.
The book is composed of six parts. Part 1 addresses the evolution of antioxidants over time (Chapter 1.1), the oxidative stress (causes, free radicals, targets, mechanisms, affected organs, effects, indicators) (Chapter 1.2) and food autooxidation (Chapter 1.3).
Part 2 is dedicated to endogenous antioxidants, namely bilirubin, catalase, coenzyme Q, ferritin, glucose-6-phosphate-dehydrogenase, melatonin, superoxide dismutase, and uric acid. It addresses endogenous sources, mechanisms of action, beneficial, and detrimental effects on health, in vitro evidence, animal studies, and clinical studies of these antioxidants.
Part 3 is devoted to the bright and dark side of synthetic antioxidants. It addresses the following topics in each chapter: sources, chemistry, bioavailability, legal status, mechanisms of action, beneficial and detrimental effects on health, in vitro evidence, animal studies, and clinical studies. Ascorbyl palmitate, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), erythorbic acid (D-ascorbic acid), nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA), octyl gallate (OG), propyl gallate (PG), and tert-butylhydroxyquinone (TBHQ) are the compounds focused in this part of the book.
Part 4 of the book addresses natural occurring antioxidants in order to give answer to the above-mentioned questions. Amino acids, carnosine, carnosol, carotenoids, citric acid, coenzyme Q, curcumin, flavonoids, lecithin, lignans, organosulfur compounds, phenolic acids, phytic acid, protein hydrolysates, selenium, sterols, tartaric acid, turmeric, uric acid, vanillin, vitamin A (retinol), vitamin C, vitamin E (tocopherols and tocotrienols), vitamin K, and zinc are focused in this part of the book.
Part 5 explores the relation between antioxidants and several diseases or disorders, namely cancer, cardiovascular diseases, cataracts/age-related macular degeneration, cognitive decline in elderly, dentistry, gastric lesions, immune functions, infertility, kidney, and liver diseases.
Part 6 discusses the actual and future perspectives on antioxidants. Chapter 6.1 devotes to the duality of antioxidants/prooxidants and chapter 6.2 to “Food and food supplements antioxidants: targets in human antioxidant system and effects on the production of endogenous antioxidants.” Finally, Chapter 6.3 presents the concluding remarks and future perspectives.
Throughout the book, the relationship of antioxidants with different beneficial and detrimental effects are examined, and the current controversies and future perspectives are addressed and explored.
We sincerely acknowledge and thank all the authors for their valuable contributions for this book.
We are aware of other antioxidants that could have been addressed, as well as the relation of antioxidants with other diseases or disorders. We look forward Antioxidants Effects in Health: The Bright and the Dark Side being useful and well-received by readers. We hope, in the future, another edition of the book can address other antioxidants.
Ana Sanches Silva and Seyed Mohammad Nabavi