Phenolic Antioxidants: Physiological and Toxicological Aspects

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Abstract
In the last decade, evidence from abundant animal and in vitro experimentation has suggested a role of oxidative stress in the pathophysiology of disease. This has given rise to the anticipation that antioxidants could be powerful agents to be used in the prevention and/or therapy of oxidant-related disease. In the past, the term “antioxidant” was used to characterize a compound with chain-breaking properties in the process of lipid peroxidation, and when biological actions of synthetic phenolic antioxidants were first examined it may frequently have been presumed that this type of action was involved. In recent years, the meaning of the term antioxidant has expanded to comprise virtually all activities directed toward the formation and action of oxidants. This adds considerably to the explanations of biological effects of synthetic phenolic antioxidants but still does not exhaust the possibilities by which these compounds can interact with biological material and which include “paradoxical” prooxidative actions. This chapter intends to give insight into the complicated and divergent mechanisms by which synthetic phenolic antioxidants may exert their effects in living organisms.

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