Reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as singlet oxygen (1O2), superoxide anion (O2–), hydroxyl (.OH) radical and hydrogen
peroxide (H2O2) are often generated as by -products of biological reactions or from exogenous factors.
These reactive species exert oxidative damaging effects by reacting with nearly every molecule found in living cells.
Such species are considered to be important causative factors in the development of diseases such as diabetes, stroke,
arteriosclerosis, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and the aging process.
Human body has multiple mechanisms especially enzymatic and non-enzymatic anti-oxidant systems to protect the cellular molecules against reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced damage.
However, the innate defense may not be enough for severe or continued oxidative stress.
Hence, certain amounts of exogenous anti-oxidants are constantly required to maintain an adequate level of anti-oxidants in order to balance the ROS in human body.
Many synthetic anti-oxidants such as butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxyl toluene (BHT) are very effective and are used for industrial processing but they possess potential health risk like carcinogenicity and toxic properties to human health and should be replaced with natural anti-oxidants.