This article gives an overview of the potential hazards of polyphenol consumption, as reported during the round-table discussion at the 1st International Conference on Polyphenols and Health, held in Vichy, France, November 2003. Adverse effects of polyphenols have been evaluated primarily in experimental studies. It is known, for example, that certain polyphenols may have carcinogenic/genotoxi...

have revealed that polyphenols of various foods and herbs have benefits to human health, and some extracts of polyphenol-rich plants, such as green tea and grape seed, have been added to foods or supplements. The antibacterial activity of various plant polyphenols and plant extracts have also been evaluated in several pharmaceutical studies. Although tea polyphenols and their extracts have been...

Widely distributed in plant kingdom and abundant in our diet plant polyphenols are today among the most talked about concerning the classes of phytochemicals. There are several thousand plant-derived compounds of biogical interest that have more than one phenolic hydroxyl group attached to one or more benzene rings, thus qualifying as polyphenols. In recent years, polyphenols have gained a lot ...

Oxidative stress is a main mediator in nitric oxide (NO) -induced neurotoxicity and has been implicated in the pathogenesis of many neurodegenerative disorders. Green tea polyphenols are usually expected as potent chemo-preventive agents due to their ability of scavenging free radicals and chelating metal ions. However, not all the actions of green tea polyphenols are necessarily beneficial. In...

Dietary polyphenols are components of many foods such as tea, fruit, and vegetables and are associated with several beneficial health effects although, so far, largely based on epidemiological studies. The intact forms of complex dietary polyphenols have limited bioavailability, with low circulating levels in plasma. A major part of the polyphenols persists in the colon, where the resident micr...

The health benefits of polyphenols are of much interest currently. To illustrate this point, a search using the term ‘‘polyphenols’’ identified no fewer than 3014 separate hits in PubMed, with 429 reviews, 88 of which appeared since 2005. Among the most highly cited class of polyphenols are the flavonoids, which comprise a large and diverse family of compounds synthesized by plants. Flavonoid s...

The in vitro ability of polyphenols, extracted from red grape, to modulate peripheral blood mononuclear cell responses has been evaluated in 20 obese (Ob) people. With regard to cytokine release in response to phorbol myristate acetate (PMA), levels of interleukin-2 (IL-2), interferon-γ (IFN-γ), IL-4, IL-10, and IL-17 were higher in the Ob than in healthy (H) subjects. Vice versa, IL-21 concent...

Oxidative stress is induced by reactive oxygen substances (ROS) that are known to affect male fertility. The aims of this study were to prospectively investigate and characterize total antioxidant and specifically polyphenols concentrations and their relations to sperm quality and fertility treatment success. During their infertility treatment, sixty-seven males were prospectively recruited to ...

Type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is an endocrine disease related to impaired/absent insulin signaling. Dietary habits can either promote or mitigate the onset and severity of T2DM. Diets rich in fruits and vegetables have been correlated with a decreased incidence of T2DM, apparently due to their high polyphenol content. Polyphenols are compounds of plant origin with several documented bioactivi...

SCOPE This study aims to use a combination of biochemical and biophysical methods to derive greater mechanistic understanding of the interactions between tea polyphenols and porcine pancreatic α-amylase (PPA). METHODS AND RESULTS The interaction mechanism was studied through fluorescence quenching (FQ), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and com...