Health effects of beer from the angle of free radicals and antioxidants.

Abstract

Alcohol and mixture of antioxidants belong among the main biologically effective components in beer. The article indicates in a well-arranged from the efficiency of alcohol on organism; the ratio of the favourable and unfavourable effects depends on the amount of its daily consumption. The favourable effect of alcohol consists mainly in the increase of concentration of antiatherogenic high density lipoproteins (HDL), in inhibition of lipoperoxidation and in the antiaggregational incidence on blood platelets. In beer the antioxidants come from malt, less specifically from hops; this is mostly the question of polyphenols. The survey sums up the main physiological effects of these antioxidants; the inhibition of oxidation of low density lipoproteins (LDL), vasodilatation and the antioxidant incidence. As chelators of metals, they hedge the rice of hydroxyle radical by the Fentor reaction. The authors end by summarizing results of their own antioxidant capacity measurement of some sorts of beer.(In Czech, English summary only)

Keywords

• beer
• alcohol
• antioxidants
• polyfenols
• lipoproteins
• health