Chemopreventive compounds from plant derived food and their bioactivity

Abstract

Terrestrial plants, especially higher plants, have a long history of use for the treatment of many human diseases such as ailment, cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative and cardiovascular disorders. Since then, many studies have been designed to evaluate biochemical properties of whole plant extract, fractions or isolated compounds. Several researches have established the relation between consumption of plant derived products to minimize the oxidative stress and diseases associated with stress. These beneficial biological properties on animal health has been attributed to certain classes of metabolites contents in plants including anthocyanins, flavonols, tannins, carotenoids, terpenoids, alkaloids and vitamins. The bioactivity of these compounds is due to their ability to scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS) or NOS or to modulate antioxidant enzymes expression. The devastating environmental pollution has burdened with numerous toxic chemicals of which biological compounds such as nucleic acid, proteins and membrane phospholipids were the potential targets leading to mutation, cell injury and death. The endogenous antioxidant systems falls prey in response to these toxic and deleterious oxidants and reactive oxygen species. In these conditions, exogenous chemopreventive compounds extracted from plant derived foods are required to maintain cell hemostasis. This review highlights the source and the chemopreventive mechanisms of genoprotective compounds from plant derived food.Asian Journal of Medical Sciences Vol.9(5) 2018 1-7