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New evidence that caffeine is a healthful antioxidant in coffee

Date:
May 4, 2011
Source:
American Chemical Society
Summary:
Scientists are reporting an in-depth analysis of how the caffeine in coffee, tea and other foods seems to protect against conditions such as Alzheimer's disease and heart disease on the most fundamental levels.
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Scientists are reporting an in-depth analysis of how the caffeine in coffee, tea, and other foods seems to protect against conditions such as Alzheimer's disease and heart disease on the most fundamental levels.

The report, which describes the chemistry behind caffeine's antioxidant effects, appears in ACS' The Journal of Physical Chemistry B.

Annia Galano and Jorge Rafael León-Carmona describe evidence suggesting that coffee is one of the richest sources of healthful antioxidants in the average person's diet. Some of the newest research points to caffeine (also present in tea, cocoa, and other foods) as the source of powerful antioxidant effects that may help protect people from Alzheimer's and other diseases. However, scientists know little about exactly how caffeine works in scavenging the so-called free radicals that have damaging effects in the body. And those few studies sometimes have reached contradictory conclusions.

In an effort to bolster scientific knowledge about caffeine, they present detailed theoretical calculations on caffeine's interactions with free radicals. Their theoretical conclusions show "excellent" consistency with the results that other scientists have report from animal and other experiments, bolstering the likelihood that caffeine is, indeed, a source of healthful antioxidant activity in coffee.


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Materials provided by American Chemical Society. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Jorge Rafael León-Carmona, Annia Galano. Is Caffeine a Good Scavenger of Oxygenated Free Radicals? The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2011; 115 (15): 4538 DOI: 10.1021/jp201383y

Cite This Page:

American Chemical Society. "New evidence that caffeine is a healthful antioxidant in coffee." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 4 May 2011. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110504095630.htm>.
American Chemical Society. (2011, May 4). New evidence that caffeine is a healthful antioxidant in coffee. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 18, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110504095630.htm
American Chemical Society. "New evidence that caffeine is a healthful antioxidant in coffee." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110504095630.htm (accessed March 18, 2024).

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