Flavonoids as Deactivators of Lipid Peroxidation

Overview

Flavonoids - a group of naturally occurring substances, possess, as antioxidants, uniqueproperties, due to their presence in the polar part of the phospholipid double-layer of themembrane.Even though they deactivate the radicals less strongly than alpha-tocopherol, their polaritymakes possible their localization on the membrane, where they can directly deactivate theradicals formed in the aqueous phase and prevent thus the peroxidation of lipids. Antioxidativeproperties of flavonoids, especially their effect on LDL, are recently intensively studied for theirpossible protective effect against diseases caused by the peroxidation of lipids. Lipid peroxidationis mainly important in vivo, due for example to its contribution to the development ofatherosclerosis.

Key words:
flavonoids - lipid peroxidation - deactivation of radicals.