Anthocyanins As Food Factor: Recent Progress In Studies On Bioavailability And Health Promotion Effects

Download or read book Anthocyanins As Food Factor: Recent Progress In Studies On Bioavailability And Health Promotion Effects written by Tetsuya Konishi and published by . This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recently, the role of diet in disease prevention and health promotion in human has been extensively discussed and thus the physiological functions of micoronutorients in diet attract much attention. Flavonoids, a family of polypnenols, are the major health beneficial ingredients we intake from the daily diet and especially the chemoprevention and cardiovascular disease prevention effects are implicated in flavonoid function. Anthocyanins, the flavonoid family, are the watersoluble pigment widely distributed in plants and contributing also to the colors of fruits and vegetables. The health beneficial effects of anthocyanins rich fruits such as berries have been recognized in people in early time, for example, night vision improvement, indicating anthocyanins are the active ingredient. However, precise scientific studies were not prompted because of their unstable nature at physiological pH and limited supply of authentic samples. As the critical roles of free radical and reactive oxygen species become apparent in disease and aging, the high antioxidant potential of anthocyanins has mainly been discussed in relation to their disease preventive functions especially towards cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Proposition of French Paradox might be another factor contributed to the vast of anthocyanin research. Many research are recently addressed to lifestyle and age related disorders such as obesity, hypoglycemia, hypocholestrolemia, and degenerative brain disorders. In addition, recent development in analytical methodology and techniques prompted studies on metabolism and bioavailability of anthocyanins both in experimental animals and human since these information are essential for the further understanding of the mechanism of functions. In this review book, unique properties of anthocyanins including acylated anthocyanins are discussed first from the view of their structure and stability, and then the bioavailability and metabolism studies are reviewed. In the following chapters, the recent research developments in anthocyanin functions are reviewed including antioxidant properties, vision improvement, anti-obesity function, cancer and anti-cardiovascular disease preventions, and degenerated brain function. We are grateful to these authors of different chapters for their timely contributions that made publications of this book possible. We hope this book will help readers to overview the significant role of anthocyanins as micronutrients functioning in disease prevention and health promotion.