ABSTRACT
Many medicinal and food plants contain large amounts of antioxidants other than vitamin C, vitamin E, and carotenoids. The antioxidative effects are mainly due to phenolic compounds: phenolic acids, flavonoids, and phenolic diterpenes. These natural antioxidants can exert considerable protection, in humans, against aging and cancer caused by free radicals, and can replace synthetic antioxidants such as butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), which are suspected to have toxic and carcinogenic effects on humans.
