Polyphenols as powerful narural antioxidants

Abstract

Antioxidants occupy a special place in food industry as food additives, used against food deterioration. Antioxidants include natural and synthetic preservatives, but a lot of people do not know the difference between these two types of food additives. Meanwhile, synthetic antioxidants are much more dangerous than natural additives. So we should study and develop the proprieties of the natural antioxidants. Powerful natural antioxidants are plant pigments – polyphenols, the major class of which is represented by flavonoids. Polyphenols may protect cell constituents against oxidative damage and, therefore, limit the risk of various degenerative diseases associated to oxidative stress, such as cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes mellitus etc. Numerous factors affect the polyphenol content of plants, such as environment, storage, methods of culinary preparation etc. Flavonoids (red pigments) changes their color in different mediums. This fact helped us to implement a qualitative reaction for the presence of flavonoids in red cabbage.