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Environmental and dietary factors can stimulate the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), resulting in uncontrolled oxidation and hence artificially increased levels of free radicals and decreased antioxidant levels in the body. This can cause damage to cells and tissues, and ROS have been implicated as factors responsible for premature or accelerated ageing and the initiation and progression of some chronic degenerative diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and atherosclerosis. Together with metabolic processes, ROS concentrations can be lowered by some dietary compounds. Evidence suggests that ingested antioxidants work best in combination. In this study we tested the hypothesis that a combination of 'Polygonum cuspidarurn' (containing resveratrol) with ascorbic acid/ascorbate and flavanoids works better as an antioxidant than the equivalent of either ascorbic acid or resveratrol alone, or their theoretical combination, using the model of free radical induced haemolysis of red blood cells it was established that the herbal-nutrient complex significantly delayed haemolysis (To = 271 min) when compared to an untreated control (To = 126 min) and either ascorbic acid (To = 229 rain) or resveratrol (To = 131 min) alone. Significantly the theoretical additive effect (To = 234 rain) was less than the observed effect from the herbal-nutrient complex (To = 271 min) a 37 min improvement. This in vitro study supports the concept of combining herbal extracts with nutrients in order to achieve more profound antioxidant effects than the additive effects of the individual chemical components. |
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