HPLC-coupled post-column derivatization aims at characterization and monitoring of plant phytocomplexes, not at assessing their biological properties.

摘要

Two recent decades of research identified a number of environmental factors as well as mechanisms leading to pathogenic processes in the human organism. A common factor in pathogenesis of many diseases is oxidative stress, a condition in which the production of damaging reactive oxygen species (ROS), present in the body as an inevitable consequence of respiration and exacerbated by the inflammatory response and by exogenous factors such as environmental pollutants, exceeds the capacity of the body's antioxidant defenses to neutralize them. Oxidative damage to DNA can lead to mutations and is therefore a potential precursor of cancer (Hussain et al., 2003). Oxidized lipids (particularly low-density lipoproteins, LDLs) are precursors of plaques that form in blood vessels and result in cardiovascular diseases (Mair, 1997). Oxidative stress is believed to participate in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis (Park and Oh, 2011) and diabetes (Wang and Hai, 2011). ROS occurrence might also be caused by a disease, e.g. beta-amyloid aggregation in Alzheimer disease, which induces hydrogen peroxide formation (Yin et al., 2011); it may be associated with treatment, e.g. radio- and chemotherapy of cancer (Floyd et al., 2005 and Schimmel et al., 2004), and is thought to be a factor in ageing (Sohal et al., 2002). As a consequence, it has been proposed that antioxidants are responsible for the protective nature of foods such as fruits and vegetables, and supplements containing antioxidants are taken daily by millions of people.