Phenolics as antioxidants

WILLIAMSON G, FAULKNER K, PLUMB G w (1998) Glucosuiolates and phenolics as antioxidants from plant foods. Eur J Cancer Prev. 7 17-21. 

Oxidative stress has been implicated in a variety of neuropathologies, including stroke, trauma, and diseases such as AD and PD. It should be reasonable to use antioxidant strategies to prevent or treat these diseases. In the following sections are discussed the use of several natural phenolics as antioxidants and the potential actions on neurodegenerative diseases. 

Triarylphosphites such as tris(nonyl)phosphite or tris(2,4-di-tert.-butylphenyl)phosphite are utilized together with phenols as antioxidants in numerous plastics and rubbers. 

In Sections I-III our review of antioxidant activities is based entirely on experimental observations with interpretations of relative activities based upon classical concepts of electronic and steric effects operating on phenoxyl radicals. In the last decade there have been some applications of chemical calculations on phenols as antioxidants, with applications to interpretation on known phenols and extension of this to predictions of activities of novel molecules. In general, the thrust of the theoretical approaches endeavor to (1) clarify the antioxidant mechanism of phenols, (2) calculate antioxidant activities and (3) make predictions on potentially new antioxidants. 

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