What is an Antioxidant: Reductant, Nucleophile, Electrophile, Scavenger or Hormetic? Searching for Consensus between Chemistry and Biology

Abstract

The definition of ‘antioxidant’ is quite different for chemists and biologists. Here, we describe those differences and point out that many of the compounds in plants and wine described as antioxidants act, in fact, through generation of oxidants and/or through addition to proteins. Indeed, these so-called antioxidants act by producing stress that results in an adaptive response largely mediated through the hormetic induction of protective enzymes.