The Importance of Anthocyanins for Human and Animal Health

Anthocyanins belong to the plant secondary metabolites causing pigmentation to flowers, fruits, seeds and leaves. They are abundant in red red berries and fruits. They are phenolic compounds belong to the flavonoids, and occur mainly as glycosides. They have antioxidant effects, and they protect cells against oxygen radical-related damage at the basis of various diseases. The concept evolves that the human and animal health condition could be partly controlled through the dietary intake of plant polyphenols. Plant polyphenols are recognized as naturally occurring antioxidants but also catalyze oxidative DNA degradation of cellular DNA either alone or in the presence of transition metal ions such as copper. In this paper we show that similar to various other classes of polyphenols, delphinidin is also capable of causing oxidative degradation of cellular DNA [1]. The antimicrobial activity and major anthocyanin pigments were determined of Vitis vinifera L. and the extracts of Vitis vinifera were studied with association of its antiradical activity [2]. Anthocyanin content varied from 85.7 to 1914.0mg/kg fresh berry weight. Assessment of the antiradical activity of extracts suggesting that other constituents are likely to exert strong antioxidant effects in grapes. Our work is focused to study antimicrobial and antioxidant activity of anthocyanins from the selected plant species in Slovakia.

Keywords: anthocyanines, antioxidant activity, health, animal

Acknowledgement: This research is supported by the Agency of Ministry of Education SR for the Structural Funds of the EU, the project: ITMS 26220120023, ITMS 26220120041, ITMS 26220220013.

References: [1] Hanif S et al. (2008) DNA Toxicology 249: 19–25.

[2] Kallithraka S et al. (2005)J Food Comp Anal 18: 375–386.