Peach (Prunus Persica): Phytochemicals and Health Benefits

ABSTRACT

For a long time fruits and vegetables have been the target of many studies and have been greatly promoted due to their nutritional value and abundance of bioactive compounds, known for their protective effects. The peach has been part of the human diet for hundreds of years, being a very common fruit consumed worldwide. It is very rich in phytochemicals like phenolic compounds, carotenoids, vitamins, volatiles and organic acids. Phenolics, carotenoids and vitamins are known for their antioxidant properties. They exert a number of beneficial effects on cells through free radical scavenging and by participating in cells’ signaling pathways. The phenolic compounds in peach-like quercetin, catechins and cyanidin derivatives have been found to play important roles due to their antioxidant, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties. Evidence has risen about their preventive effects on multiple chronic and age-related diseases such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension, inflammation, cardiovascular, neurodegenerative and oncologic diseases. A variety of studies have focused on testing and determining the phenolic content of peach extracts, which have shown great potential as free-radical scavengers and providing protection against several chronic/age-related diseases. In this review we will present the peach as a potential medicinal food, giving emphasis to its phenolic compounds as health promotors.

KEYWORDS:

• Phenolic compounds
• antioxidant
• anti-inflammatory
• cardiovascular disease
• neurodegenerative disease
• cancer

Additional information

Funding

The authors are grateful to the financial support from FEDER funds through the POCI - COMPETE 2020 - Operational Programme Competitiveness and Internationalisation in Axis I - Strengthening research, technological development and innovation (Project No. 007491) and Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) (Project UID/Multi/00709). Luís R. Silva (SFRH/BPD/105263/2014) was supported by post doc grants from FCT and by a post doc incentive grant under the Protocol signed between the University of Beira Interior (UBI) and Banco Santander/Totta.