Antioxidant

Figs contain components that have antioxidant properties.

Figs improve the antioxidant activity of your body.

Several other herbs also showed strong antioxidant activity. They include bay and dill. However, their strength was about one-half to one-third as strong as that of the three kinds of oregano. Generally, the herbs used as medicines were low in antioxidant activity. The scientists say this suggests that any health effects from such herbs resulted mostly from other actions in the body.

Although BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole) and BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene) are avoided by some consumers because several studies have suggested they may be toxic or carcinogenic (they are banned in Britain), these antioxidants have also been shown to inhibit the action of cancer-causing chemicals, and BHT has been shown to suppress the growth of harmful viruses.

The postulated mechanism for the reaction of coumarin 4 as an antioxidant, as indicated in Fig 3, relies on the mercapto hydrogen atom (bold), which is under the influence of resonance and inductive effects.

In Philasterides dicentrarchi, a scuticociliate pathogen of turbot, resveratrol causes oxidative stress, inhibition of antioxidant enzymes and morphological alterations in the mitochondria [17 ,54 ].