New Antioxidant Compounds Identified

GRANADA, SpainScientists at the University of Granada have identified and characterized for the first time different antioxidant compounds from functional foods such as olive oil, honey, walnuts and a medicinal herb called Teucrium polium. The scientists used two new techniquescapillary electrophoresis and high resolution liquid chromatographyto identify and quantify a great part of the phenolic compounds contained in these foods.

Among the compounds that give such functional characteristics to these foods are phenolic compounds that have generated great interest due to their antioxidant capacity, which endows them with a chemopreventive effect in humans and causes them to have a great influence on the stability of oxidation present in food. It is widely reported that they have a high antioxidant activity and are able to positively influence the organism by preventing the onset of certain diseases including diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer, arterial hypertension, etc.