Handbook of antioxidants

1230 Pages·1996·6.37 MB·English

by  Enrique Cadenas

Handbook of Antioxidants Antioxidants in
title:
Health and Disease ; 3
author: Cadenas, Enrique.
publisher: CRC Press
isbn10 | asin: 082479298X
print isbn13: 9780824792985
ebook isbn13: 9780585157955
language: English
Antioxidants--Handbooks, manuals, etc,
subject
Antioxidants--handbooks.
publication date: 1996
lcc: RB170.H36 1996eb
ddc: 612.3/9
Antioxidants--Handbooks, manuals, etc,
subject:
Antioxidants--handbooks.
Page aa
Handbook of Antioxidants
Page ab
ANTIOXIDANTS IN HEALTH AND DISEASE
Series Editors
LESTER PACKER, PH.D.
University of California
Berkeley, California
JÜRGENFUCHS, PH.D., M.D.
Johann Wolfgang Goethe University
Frankfurt, Germany
1. Vitamin A in Health and Disease, edited by Rune Blomhoff
2. Biothols in Health and Disease, edited by Lester Packer and
Enrique Cadenas
3. Handbook of Antioxidants, edited by Enrique Cadenas and Lester
Packer
Additional Volumes in Preparation
Vitamin C in Health and Disease, edited by Lester Packer and Jürgen
Fuchs
Handbook of Synthetic Antioxidants, edited by Lester Packer and
Jürgen Fuchs
Lipoic Acid in Health and Disease, edited by Jürgen Fuchs, Lester
Packer, and Guido Zimmer
Related Volumes
Vitamin E in Health and Disease: Biochemistry and Clinical
Applications, edited by Lester Packer and Jürgen Fuchs
Page i
Handbook of Antioxidants
Edited by
Enrique Cadenas
University of Southern California School of Pharmacy
Los Angeles, California
Lester Packer
University of California
Berkeley, California
Marcel Dekker, Inc.
New York Basel Hong Kong
Page ii
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Handbook of antioxidants / [edited by] Enrique Cadenas, Lester
Packer.
p. cm.(Antioxidants in health and disease ; 3)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8247-9298-X (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. AntioxidantsHandbooks, manuals, etc. I. Cadenas, Enrique.
II. Packer, Lester. III. Series.
[DNLM: 1. Antioxidantshandbooks. W1 AN884 v.3 1996 / QV 735
H235 1996]
RB170.H36 1996
612.3'9dc20
DNLM/DLC
for Library of Congress 95-47546
CIP
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Copyright © 1996 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Neither this book nor any part may be reproduced or transmitted in
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Current printing (last digit):
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Page iii
SERIES INTRODUCTION
In June of 1992, 17 international researchers in the field of free radical
and antioxidant biology and preventive medicine met at the village of
Saas Fee, Switzerland, and drew up the Saas Fee Declaration to
recognize the importance of prevention in medicine and health. Since
then, hundreds of researchers from around the world have signed the
declaration:
Saas Fee Declaration
On the significance of antioxidants in preventive medicine.
1. The intensive research on free radicals of the past 15 years by
scientists worldwide has led to the statement in 1992 that antioxidant
nutrients may have major significance in the prevention of a number
of diseases. These include cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease,
some forms of cancer and several other disorders, many of which may
be age-related.
2. There is now general agreement that there is a need for further work
at the fundamental scientific level, as well as in large-scale
randomized trials and in clinical medicine, which can be expected to
lead to more precise information being made available.
3. The major objective of this work is the prevention of disease. This
may be achieved by use of antioxidants which are natural
physiological
Page iv
substances. The strategy should be to achieve optimal intakes of these
antioxidant nutrients as part of preventive medicine.
4. It is quite clear that many environmental sources of free radicals
exist, such as ozone, sunlight, and other forms of radiation, smog,
dust, and other atmospheric pollutants. The optimal intake of
antioxidants provides a preventive measure against these hazards.
5. There is a great need for improvement in public awareness of the
potential preventive benefits of antioxidant nutrient intake. There is
overwhelming evidence that the antioxidant nutrients such as vitamin
E, vitamin C, carotenoids, alpha-lipoic acid and others are safe even at
very high levels of intake.
6. Moreover, there is now substantial agreement that governmental
agencies, health professionals and the media should promote
information transfer to the general public, particularly when evidence
exists that benefits for human health and public expenditure are
overwhelming.
This declaration arose from the overwhelming evidence now available
indicating that antioxidants play a critical role in wellness, health
maintenance, and the prevention of chronic and degenerative diseases.
Antioxidants neutralize free radicals that are generated during normal
metabolism and during exposure to environmental insult. Free radicals
play a role in most major health problems of the industrialized world,
including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and disorders of aging.
Some antioxidants are quite familiar as vitamins or vitamin-forming
compounds: vitamin E, vitamin C, and the carotenoids, including
beta-carotene. These antioxidants must be constantly replenished
through the diet. Others, such as ubiquinols and the thiol antioxidants,
including glutathione and lipoic acid, are manufactured by the body,
but the levels of many of these can be bolstered through dietary
supplementation. Until recently, it was thought that each antioxidant
played its role in isolation from the others. But work in several
laboratories indicates that there is a dynamic interplay among the
systems. For example, when vitamin E neutralizes a free radical in a
membrane, in becomes itself a relatively harmless free radical, which
decomposes. However, vitamin C can regenerate vitamin E from the
vitamin E radical, in effect recycling vitamin E. Vitamin C becomes a
radical in the process, but it, too, can be recycled by interacting with
other antioxidant systems. It has been shown that these interactions
occur in the test tube, and nutritional supplementation studies support
this idea for the whole organism. Thus, a picture is emerging of a
complex interplay among the defense systems, with the various
antioxidant cycles acting to prevent cell damage and disease. Our
knowledge is far from complete but these findings already have
implications in terms of recommendations for supplementation.
Page v
Hence, it seems particularly appropriate to offer this series at the
present time. Never has the demand for knowledge about antioxidants
been greater, and never has their potential for treating disease and
improving health been clearer. The series highlights natural
antioxidants and artificial antioxidants that mimic natural systems.
In the past few years unprecedented progress has been made in the
recognition and understanding of the role of thiol antioxidants in
protection against disease and cell regulation, and in mechanisms
where thiols and thiol enzymes protect against environmental factors
that are sources of damage to living systems.
In view of the above, it is obvious that a handbook of the major
natural antioxidants is essential to this series. The co-editors of this
volume have selected distinguished researchers to thoroughly review
antioxidants of natural origin, including antioxidant vitamins,
phytochemicals from sources such as extracts from tea and Ginkgo
leaves, flavonoids and polyphenols, carotenes, hormones such as
melatonin, and metabolites such as coenzyme Q and uric acid. The
emphasis given for each type of antioxidant is on chemistry, biology,
and health applications, in order to provide the basic information that
will make this handbook a valuable reference source.
LESTER PACKER
JÜRGEN FUCHS