Abstract

Over past decades, plantborne antioxidants dominated so called "translational research" in the area of food, nutrition, and disease prevention. Among consumers and producers, such phytochemicals are synonyms of nutriceuticals. Popularity and commercial success of antioxidants stems from mechanistic studies suggesting the involvement of reactive oxygen species in etiology of chronic diseases. However, epidemiology failed to provide unequivocal confirmation of protective role of plantborne antioxidants in people exposed to oxidative stress. This ambiguity results from still insufficient understanding of relationships between chemical nature, redox potential in particular, and biological or physiological activity of antioxidants in the reducing environment of respectively cell or whole organism. To fill in this gap, we elaborate Antioxidant Power Series (APS) for antioxidants produced endogenously and found in edible or medicinal plants. APS is supposed to resemble the electrochemical series, which enables chemists to predict behavior of redox pairs in different systems. Similarly as hydrogen constitutes the point "zero" in electrochemical series, in the case of APS as such a reference point glutathione (GSH), the main physiological antioxidant, is proposed. The current version of APS for over 30 antioxidants and its relation to biological activities associated with redox homeostasis exhibited by these compounds will be presented and predictive value discussed.

Authors (6)