Medicinal Plants, Economical and Natural Agents with Antioxidant Activity

Abstract

Background: The review aims to summarize the most important and common natural antioxidants and their resources from medicinal plants, as the vast majority in the world have always applied medicinal plants for the prevention and treatment of various diseases. Keywords were searched in PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and the Institute for Scientific Information Web of Science, as well as the search engine Google Scholar. Main body: Important traditional medicinal plants with antioxidant activities in China are Asparagus, bindii, blueberries, barberry fruit, borage, calendula, camellia, coriander, cumin, Chinese bayberry, Chinese bitter melon, Chinese cabbage, Chinese cherry, Chinese jujube, Chinese olive, pomegranate, Chinese rose tea, Chinese toon, Chinese watermelon, black tea, green tea, knotweed, Chinese quince, Chinese rhubarb, pomegranate, sumac, thyme, wolfberry, dendrobium, drumstick tree, rosemary, black Zira, rose, Fiscus species, ginger, ginkgo, goji berry, grape, Jerusalem thorn, jujube, kiwifruit seed oil, and liquorice root. Conclusion: The main derived exogenous natural antioxidants are derived from medicinal plants, fruits, foods, flowers, and traditional herbal medicines. Among various medicinal plants, the medicinal plants common in Asian traditional medicine have shown enormous potential as great sources of natural antioxidants. Polyphenols, and some other secondary bioactive compounds like anthocyanins, isoflavones, pterostilbene, resveratol, quercetin and catechins have shown potent antioxidant activity.