ABSTRACT
Inclusion of herbs and spices in diets promotes intake of plant-based foods that increase the nutritional quality of the daily diet. Herbs and spices, while providing flavor and aroma to our diets, also contribute diverse bioactives that may have a role in improving human health. This chapter lists a host of spice compounds that are experimentally evidenced to control cellular oxidative stress both in vitro and in vivo and their beneficial role in preventing or ameliorating oxidative stress-mediated diseases-cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cataract, and cancer. Herbs and spices, which are normal ingredients of the human diet, are now known to exert health-beneficial antioxidant effects in mammalian systems and in several model systems through their bioactive compounds. In view of the antioxidant potential of a number of herbs and spices with far-reaching health implication, the food adjuncts deserve to be considered as natural and necessary components of our daily nutrition.
