TECHNOLOGIES TO IMPROVE THE STABILITY OF POLYPHENOLIC COMPOUNDS IN DRUG DISCOVERY (REVIEW)

Abstract

Natural polyphenols are valuable compounds possessing scavenging properties towards radical oxygen species, and complexing properties towards proteins. Therefore, phenolic compounds have attracted increasing attention as potential agents for preventing and treating many oxidative stress-related diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, ageing, diabetes mellitus and neurodegenerative diseases. Polyphenolic compounds are characterized by a very high sensitivity to several environmental factors including physical, chemical and biological conditions and can be oxidized very quickly with a considerable loss in activity. Development of new approaches to stabilisation and protection of these compounds from degradation and therefore to improve their biological activity is of interest. The literature describes many encapsulation methods, many of which have been successfully used for plant polyphenols. This review provides some plant polyphenols and their basic chemical and biological properties as well as methods of encapsulating polyphenols, which are divided into physical, physico-chemical, chemical methods and other methods of stabilization.

Keywords

• polyphenol
• antioxidant
• bioavailability
• encapsulation