The importance of antioxidants and place in today's scientific and technological studies

Abstract

Antioxidants have become scientifically interesting compounds due to their many benefits such as anti-aging and anti-inflammatory. Today, it is still used in many areas. In food technology, antioxidants are added to many foodstuffs in order to enrich the foods and eliminate the problems. Therefore, studies to determine the antioxidant activities of natural foods and their components are also continuing rapidly. Antioxidants have also been replaced in the encapsulation studies used for the preservation and stabilization of food components. Of course, preservation of foods is as important as their production. The latest packaging techniques for food preservation are edible films and coatings. The protective function of edible films and coatings can be improved by the addition of antioxidants. Unlike these, studies on plants and animals have been investigated in vivo in terms of how the antioxidant activity changes as a result of metabolic activities. The role of antioxidant enzymes in these studies is quite large. Many results have been found for the elimination of diseases by either in vivo or in vitro studies regarding antioxidants. Thus, the importance of antioxidants increased with the use in pharmacology, cosmetics and medicine. In this study, we tried to bring a current perspective to antioxidants played an active role in many fields by combining the technological applications and scientific studies of antioxidants. In order to further customize the issue, we have done this especially for the food and health field and we have tried to emphasize the importance of antioxidants in this way.

Keywords: Antioxidants; Food; Health; Science; Technology.

Fig. 1

Chemical structures of flavonoids (a), ascorbic acid (b), benzoic acid (c), tocopherols (d), carotenoids (α-carotene, β-carotene, lycopene, lutein)(E)