Polyphenols are one of the crucial functional bioactive components found in citrus fruits such as oranges, grapefruits, lime, tangerine, bergamot and others. In general, we consume polyphenols more than 820 mg daily from several dietary sources including fruits and vegetables [1]. Multiple studies reported that consumption of citrus polyphenols in diet helps to prevent from heart diseases, cancers and several chronic diseases [2,3]. In fact, in citrus fruits natural polyphenols are classified into four major classes according to their chemical structures including flavonoids, lignans, stilbenes and phenolic acid [4]. The bioactivities of citrus polyphenols in humans depends on the enzymes related to absorption, digestion, and involvement of gut microbiota for their metabolism activities.

  The in vivo studies of citrus polyphenols bioavailabiity is an important to conclude the role of citrus to promote human health. In this process, citrus polyphenols enters to small intestine where glycones form of polyphenols biotransformed to aglycones form for absorption in their host body. While, other complex structural forms which are not easily absorbed passes to the colon for the metabolism and biotransformation activities including cleaving of the conjugation moieties by the gut microbiota. Example- hydroxycinnamic acids (a subclass of polyphenols) are esterified to lipid, sugar and organic acid. Moreover, remaining aglycone form of polyphenols passes to the liver via portal vein system for phase II conjugation metabolism reactions such as methylation in the presence of catechol-O-methyl transferase, glucuronidation by UDP-glucosyltransferase and sulfation reaction in the presence of sulfotransferase. Further, these metabolites are circulated through blood stream and enters to the different organs and tissues until it excreted through urine, while some metabolites from liver as bile components further passes to the small intestine and colon for enterohepatic recirculation and deconjugation and finally excreted through feces of the human body [5,6].

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Citation

Citation: Abhisek Karn. “Impact of Citrus Polyphenols on Human Health". Acta Scientific Nutritional Health 4.2 (2020): 103-104.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Abhisek Karn. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.