Vitamins in Plant Extracts

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Vitamins in Plant Extracts
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Introduction

• A plant extract refers to an active substance
  extracted from a natural plant. Plant extracts
  are the main raw materials for botanical
  preparations and can be used in nutritional
  supplements, health foods, cosmetics industries.
  The active ingredients of plant extracts include
  alkaloids, saponins, vitamins, polyphenols,
  polypeptides and polysaccharides. Among them,
  vitamins are both essential nutrients and the
  most important antioxidants in the human body.
  Vitamins mainly contain VE, VC and carotenoids.
  This article focuses on vitamins in plant
  extracts.

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1 VE

• VE is a general term for various tocopherols,
  among which a-tocopherol has the strongest
  biological activity, and the physiological
  activities of ß-tocopherol, ?-tocopherol and
  d-tocopherol are 40, 8 and 20, respectively.
  In most cases, the antioxidant effect of VE is to
  provide hydrogen ions by reacting with lipoxygen
  radicals or lipid peroxy radicals, interrupting
  the lipid peroxidation chain reaction. VE is the
  most important fat-soluble antioxidant.

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2 VC

• VC, also known as ascorbic acid, is an acidic
  polyhydroxy compound containing an
  alpha-ketolactone of 6 carbon atoms. VC has an
  enol-type hydroxyl group capable of dissociating
  hydrogen ions, and is the most important
  water-soluble antioxidant. It can remove active
  oxygen radicals by supplying electrons step by
  step, and can promote regeneration of VE.

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3 Carotenoid

• There are more than 600 types of carotenoids, all
  of which have an isoprenoid structure with 11
  double bonds. Carotenoids mainly include
  ß-carotene, Lutein, Zeaxanthin, Lycopene and
  Astaxanthin.

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3.1 ß-carotene

• Studies have found that ß-carotene, lutein,
  zeaxanthin, lycopene and astaxanthin also have
  significant antioxidant functions. Among them,
  ß-carotene is the most typical representative.
  ß-carotene is a precursor of VA, which has good
  oxidation resistance, and can suppress the
  generation of active oxygen by providing
  electrons, thereby achieving the purpose of
  scavenging free radicals.

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3.2 Lutein and Zeaxanthin

• There are 8 kinds of isomers of lutein, which are
  mainly found in dark green vegetables such as
  cabbage and spinach, and flowers such as
  calendula and marigold. Zeaxanthin is mainly
  found in foods such as hazelnuts, corn, spinach
  and asian persimmons. The effects of lutein and
  zeaxanthin are very similar, mainly in reducing
  the damage of oxidation to the eyes, preventing
  aging caused by visual speckle degradation, and
  preventing the oxidation of proteins and lipids
  in the lens, thereby reducing the incidence of
  senile cataract.

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3.3 Lycopene

• Lycopene is an acyclic carotenoid with a chemical
  structure of a linear, all-trans structure
  consisting of 11 conjugated double bonds and 2
  non-conjugated double bonds. This structure can
  accept the excitation of different electrons to
  generate ground state oxygen or triplet oxygen
  lycopene. A triplet oxygen lycopene can remove
  thousands of singlet oxygen radicals, and its
  antioxidant capacity is 100 times that of VE, is
  the strongest anti-aging antioxidant in nature.

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3.4 Astaxanthin

• Astaxanthin is a special oxidized carotenoid that
  has not only a long conjugated double bond in the
  molecule like other carotenoids, but also has a
  hydroxyl group at the 3 and 4 positions of its
  two violet rings. These structures have
  relatively active electronic effects, can provide
  electrons to free radicals, or capture free
  radicals by attracting unpaired electrons of free
  radicals, so astaxanthin has a stronger
  antioxidant function than general carotenoids.