Flavan‐3‐ols: Nature, occurrence and biological activity

Abstract

Representing the most common flavonoid consumed in the American diet, the flavan-3-ols and their polymeric condensation products, the proanthocyanidins, are regarded as functional ingredients in various beverages, whole and processed foods, herbal remedies and supplements. Their presence in food affects food quality parameters such as astringency, bitterness, sourness, sweetness, salivary viscosity, aroma, and color formation. The ability of flavan-3-ols to aid food functionality has also been established in terms of microbial stability, foamability, oxidative stability, and heat stability. While some foods only contain monomeric flavan-3-ols [(-)-epicatechin predominates] and dimeric proanthocyanidins, most foods contain oligomers of degree of polymerization values ranging from 1-10 or greater than 10. Flavan-3-ols have been reported to exhibit several health beneficial effects by acting as antioxidant, anticarcinogen, cardiopreventive, antimicrobial, anti-viral, and neuro-protective agents. This review summarizes the distribution and health effects of these compounds.

Gene Expression and Metabolite Profiling of Developing Highbush Blueberry Fruit Indicates Transcriptional Regulation of Flavonoid Metabolism and Activation of Abscisic Acid Metabolism

“…7 (Aron and Kennedy, 2008). The blueberry mDP range is similar to polymer lengths reported for apple fruits (3-13; Sanoner et al, 1999;Hamauzu et al, 2005) and grape seeds (3-9; Kennedy et al, 2000;Downey et al, 2003).…”

Effects of green tea, black tea and Rooibos tea on angiotensin-converting enzyme and nitric oxide in healthy volunteers

“…Diet is of great importance to human health (44)(45)(46)(47) . The prevention of CVD is attributed to a diversity of effects such as antioxidative (48) , antithrombotic and anti-inflammatory properties, activation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase and inhibition of LDL oxidation (49)(50)(51)(52)(53) . Flavonoids, e.g.…”

Optimised method for the analysis of phenolic compounds from caper ( Capparis spinosa L.) berries and monitoring of their changes during fermentation

“…In particular, Kaulmann et al (2014) reported the polyphenolic profiles of 27 samples of Brassica oleracea varieties and eleven polyphenols were identified. In this study, nine polyphenolic compounds that have been detected or searched in similar matrices, such as caper flowers (Conforti et al, 2011), other edible plants and berries (Gull, Anwar, Sultana, Cervantes Alcayde, & Nouman, 2015;Miean & Mohamed, 2001;Häkkinen, Kärenlampi, Heinonen, Mykkänen, & Törrönen, 1999) and processed vegetables (Aron & Kennedy, 2008), were investigated, but only five compounds were identified and analysed for their concentration in our samples ( Table 2). …”