Antioxidant Activity and Disease-Modifying Potential of Medicinal Herbs

A special issue of Antioxidants (ISSN 2076-3921). This special issue belongs to the section "Health Outcomes of Antioxidants and Oxidative Stress".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2019) | Viewed by 17131

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Chinese Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chinese Medicine Resources, China Medical University, Taichung 40438, Taiwan
Interests: neurodegenerative disorders; Alzheimer’s disease; Parkinson’s disease; behavioral pharmacology; neuropharmacology; antioxidants; neuroinflammation; pharmacognosy; medicinal herbs
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Guest Editor
The School of Chinese Medicines for Post-Baccalaureate, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Interests: biochips; pharmacology; traditional Chinese medicine; medicinal herbs

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Guest Editor
Department of Golden-Ager Industry Management, College of Management, Chaoyang University of Technology, Taichung, Taiwan
Interests: plant tissue culture; functional food; traditional Chinese medicine; medicinal herbs

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Evidence has demonstrated that oxidative stress is an important factor contributing to the initiation and progression of many disorders, such as diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disorders. Oxidative and nitrosative stress are the imbalance between the generation and elimination of free radicals, caused by the elevation of intracellular radical levels or a decrease in the activities of intracellular antioxidant defence system. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS), major free radicals in the human body, attack biomolecules, such as proteins, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and nucleic acids, and then leads to intracellular oxidative damage and apoptosis. Oxidative stress also can activate/inhibit cytosolic protein kinase members, for instance, the MAPK pathway or PI3K/AKT pathway, and then modulate a variety of enzymes, including pro-apoptotic regulators, detoxifying and antioxidant proteins, and transcription factors. Minimizing the redox imbalance may be one of the most important approaches in the prevention of these diseases. Antioxidants scavenge free radicals, which initiate and propagate oxidative chain reactions, and thus prevent intracellular oxidative damage. Many herbs contain natural antioxidants, such as phenols, flavonoids and phenylpropanoids. These herbs and natural antioxidants have been revealed to possess multiple pharmacological activities, including neuroprotective and anti-aging activities, via their antioxidant properties.

We invite you to submit your latest research findings or a review article to this Special Issue, which will bring together current research concerning the antioxidant activities of medicinal herbs or their phytoconstituents, and their cellular signalling mechanism in disease-modifying potential. This research can include both in vitro and in vivo studies relating to any of the following topics: Antioxidant activity of medicinal herbs or their phytoconstituents; disease-modifying potential of medicinal herbs or their phytoconstituents; and the role of cell signalling pathways in disease-modifying potential of medicinal herbs or their phytoconstituents.

We look forward to your contributions.

Dr. Chi-Rei Wu
Prof. Li-Wei Lin
Prof. Hung-Chi Chang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Antioxidants is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Medicinal herbs
  • Antioxidant activity
  • Cell signalling
  • Phytochemistry
  • Oxidative stress
  • Diseases

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 1618 KiB  
Article
Monitoring of Chlorogenic Acid and Antioxidant Capacity of Solanum melongena L. (Eggplant) under Different Heat and Storage Treatments
by Petra Šilarová, Lila Boulekbache-Makhlouf, Federica Pellati and Lenka Česlová
Antioxidants 2019, 8(7), 234; https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox8070234 - 20 Jul 2019
Cited by 25 | Viewed by 8700
Abstract
Solanum melongena L., also known as eggplant, is a widely consumed vegetable and it is well-known for its beneficial antioxidant properties, due to phenolic compounds. In this work, the influence of different cooking procedures on the content of chlorogenic acid was evaluated on [...] Read more.
Solanum melongena L., also known as eggplant, is a widely consumed vegetable and it is well-known for its beneficial antioxidant properties, due to phenolic compounds. In this work, the influence of different cooking procedures on the content of chlorogenic acid was evaluated on eggplant samples of different geographic origin by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). An easy and quick extraction procedure with 50% methanol as the extraction solvent was optimized for the first time by means of a design-of-experiment and applied to heat treated samples of eggplant. The antioxidant capacity of eggplant extracts was also evaluated by using the ABTS assay and it was correlated with the data obtained by the HPLC method. The content of chlorogenic acid was different in each heat-treated eggplant sample and it depended on the temperature applied during the cooking procedure. In particular, an increase of chlorogenic acid content with rising temperature was observed. Conversely, a very high temperature (250 °C) caused a decrease of chlorogenic acid amount. The influence of storage on the content of chlorogenic acid was also monitored. While the level of chlorogenic acid in fresh samples decreased during four weeks of storage, an increase in its content in heat treated eggplant was observed within the same period. Multivariate data analysis was used to classify eggplant samples into different groups, according to the country of origin and heat treatment procedure. This study provides new insights to preserve the antioxidant properties of eggplant phenolics during different thermal and storage treatments in order to highlight their health promoting effects. Full article
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12 pages, 763 KiB  
Article
Inhibition of Advanced Glycation End-Product Formation by High Antioxidant-Leveled Spices Commonly Used in European Cuisine
by Małgorzata Starowicz and Henryk Zieliński
Antioxidants 2019, 8(4), 100; https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox8040100 - 15 Apr 2019
Cited by 58 | Viewed by 8008
Abstract
Spices and herbs, as good sources of polyphenols, could be strong inhibitors of advanced glycation end-product (AGE) formation. The aim of this research was to measure the ability of various spices to inhibit AGEs and to study the correlation of AGE inhibition with [...] Read more.
Spices and herbs, as good sources of polyphenols, could be strong inhibitors of advanced glycation end-product (AGE) formation. The aim of this research was to measure the ability of various spices to inhibit AGEs and to study the correlation of AGE inhibition with total phenolic (TP) content and antioxidant capacity. Fourteen spices commonly used in European cuisine were extracted with a 50% ethanol solution, and their water and total phenolic contents and antioxidant capacities were examined. Antioxidant capacity was evaluated using three methods: (1) Measurement of the radical scavenging ability of 2,2’-azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS) and (2) 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH●); and (3) photochemiluminescence (PCL) assay. Antiglycation properties were studied in vivo using two model systems: Bovine serum albumin-glucose (BSA-glucose) and bovine serum albumin-methylglyoxal (BSA-MGO). The most potent glycation inhibitors, according to the BSA-MGO assay, were star anise (88%), cinnamon (85%), allspice (81%), and cloves (79%), whereas in the BSA-glucose measurement, oregano was noted to be a very effective inhibitor of the glycation process. The ability to inhibit glycation was highly correlated with TP values in the BSA-MGO and BSA-glucose assay (r = 0.84 and 0.76, respectively). Our research showed the high antiglycation ability of cinnamon, cloves, and allspice, and we suggest, for the first time, that anise could also be considered a good glycation inhibitor. Full article
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