From Foods to Chemotherapeutics: The Antioxidant Potential of Dietary Phytochemicals

Abstract

Food plants have been recognized for their medicinal properties for millennia, a concept supported by epidemiological studies indicating long-term health benefits for people consuming greater amounts of fruits and vegetables. As our technology and instrumentation advance, researchers have the ability to identify promising phytochemicals, and examine their potential benefits, or detriments, to human health. While results from trials investigating single chemical supplementation have sometimes produced negative health results, studies investigating the synergistic action of phytochemicals—either within our diet or as an adjuvant to radiation or chemotherapy—appear promising. Utilizing phytochemicals as synergistic agents may lower the chemotherapeutic doses needed to incur physiological results, while also using chemicals with fewer toxic effects. This review investigates a variety of plant-produced chemicals humans typically ingest, their impacts on overall health patterns, molecular mechanisms associated with their health impacts, and the potential of their synergistic use for therapeutic purposes.

Selected potential pharmaceutical and medical benefits of phenolic compounds: Recent advances

“…The antioxidant capacity of plasma is associated with antioxidant food consumption [174]. Consuming an antioxidant-rich diet is believed to help prevent the negative effects of aging and behavior [175]. It was suggested that the consumption of polyphenolics present in fruits and vegetables could be effective anti-aging agents [176].…”

Understanding the prophylactic, chemo preventive, and pharmacotherapeutic perspectives of various dietary foods in breast cancer

“…Additionally, these substances have been extracted from fruit and plant medicines [59] . Alternative medicine and dietary approaches are inducing cell arrest and apoptosis, and increasing the sensitivity of cancer cells to radiation and chemotherapy [60] .…”

Insight into the antioxidant activities of ten Fabaceae plant species that are medicinally used by the Aucan Tribal Peoples from the Republic of Suriname (South America)

“…In addition, exogenous antioxidants provided through the diet may help protect the body from oxidative stress and associated health problems [10]. Well-studied examples are phenolic compounds such as phenolic acids, flavonoids, anthocyanins, and tannins [11] along with vitamins such as ascorbic acid and α-tocopherol, β-carotene, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and essential minerals such as selenium [12]. These substances prevent the formation of ROS or interrupt their propagation, scavenge ROS, remove intermediates of ROS in redox reactions, inhibit ROS-generating oxidation reactions, and repair oxidized molecules [8][9][10][11][12].…”