ABSTRACT
Plants are major source of natural products, either as standardized extracts or as pure compounds from different parts, due to unmatched bioavailability of chemical diversity. Many flowering and nonflowering plants and their parts (leaves, flowers, seeds, and stems) have been studied for their medicinal properties due to plant-based biocompounds, which may be derived from natural resources (biological/plants), synthetic chemicals, or recombinant DNA technology. Bioactive molecules derived from biological resources have significant importance in different industries, especially the pharmaceuticals and foods. The specific fractions rich in required bioactivities isolated from the plant extracts could be useful in the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industry. The bioactivity in extracts prepared from plants using polar and nonpolar solvents, and also in the essential oils of certain seasonal plants under different environmental conditions has been studied by many researchers for the assessment of antioxidant properties. Seasonal variations have also been found in bioactivities of the extracts from different plant parts. This chapter reviews bioactivities of plant-based antioxidants. The information in this chapter will be helpful for researchers and pharmacists for future studies.
