Archive | 2019
Role of Phenols in Energy and Functional Beverages
Abstract
Abstract In the 21st century, role of foods and beverages in disease prevention and treatment is receiving more and more attention as they are scientifically proven to provide health benefits beyond the basic nutritional functions. Nowadays, beverages are one of the most popular functional and medicinal foods on the market as they easily meet consumer demands (convenient packaging size, shape and appearance, ease of distribution, and storage for refrigerated, and shelf-stable products). Numerous functional and medicinal beverages include ingredients derived from fruits, vegetables, and various herbs, thus presenting a rich source of phenols, a phytonutrients with wide variety of proven beneficial effects on well-being, such as antioxidant, antiinflammatory, anticancer, antimicrobial, antiaging, etc. In some beverages, phenols are the main active principle, such as renowned chlorogenic acid and epigallocatechin gallate in green tea. In addition, combination of phenols with probiotic microorganisms represents an innovative biotechnology to enlarge the market for functional beverages. Also, phenols are receiving emerging attention due to their antimicrobial activity as alternative preservatives of food or beverage. In this review, role of phenols in functional beverages currently found on the market will be presented and discussed in detail based on scientific facts.