Are polyphenols antioxidants or pro-oxidants? What do we learn from cell culture and in vivo studies?

By Barry Halliwell. Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, 2008

760 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Biochemistry, Organic Chemistry

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2113d914fc5f036971cfd1a430f6d078b37dd337

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Biochemistry

In Organic Chemistry

Citations in the corpus

A review on antioxidants, prooxidants and related controversy: natural and synthetic compounds, screening and analysis methodologies and future perspectives. (2013, background): “Halliwell (2008) postulated that prooxidant effect can be beneficial, since the imposition of a mild degree of oxidative stress, might raise the levels of antioxidant defences and xenobiotic-metabolising enzymes, leading to overall cytoprotection.”
Polyphenols in Monogastric Nutrition – A Review (2017, background): “Despite the above, the pro-oxidant action of polyphenols can also deliver positive effects by inducing mild oxidative stress, generating antioxidants and xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes, and contributing to overall cytoprotective effects (Halliwell, 2008; Procházková et al., 2011).”
Silymarin as a Natural Antioxidant: An Overview of the Current Evidence and Perspectives (2015, neutral): “Indeed, the average concentration of most plant polyphenols in plasma rarely exceeds 1–2 μM in healthy subjects [141,142,143].”
Oxidative Stress: A Key Modulator in Neurodegenerative Diseases (2019, background): “However, the chronic health problems and neurodegenerative diseases still occurring raise the possibility that besides antioxidants, there may be other factors associated with oxidative stress, later identified as pro-oxidants [35].”
Targeting Free Radicals in Oxidative Stress-Related Human Diseases. (2017, background): “Some flavonoids have been found to act as mild pro-oxidants and therefore might be suitable candidates to accordingly boost the antioxidant capacity of cells [26].”
The antioxidant and pro-oxidant activities of green tea polyphenols: a role in cancer prevention (2010, background): “Flavanols have been reported to scavenge a host of oxygen, nitrogen, and chlorine radical species, which include superoxide, peroxyl radicals, hypochlorous acid, and peroxynitrous acid [18].”