ABSTRACT
Phenolic antioxidants are natural compounds including a very large and diverse group of substances, which are characterized by having at least one aromatic ring with one or more hydroxyl groups attached. More than 8000 phenolic structures have been reported and they are widely dispersed throughout the plant kingdom. Phenolic antioxidants range from simple, low molecular-weight, single aromatic-ringed compounds to large and complex tannins and derived polyphenols. They can be classifi ed based on the number and arrangement of their carbon atoms (Table 1) and are commonly found conjugated to sugars and organic acids (Crozier et al. 2006).
