Free radicals are continuously produced in our body, due to oxygen utilization and results in the generation of a series of reactive oxygen species and non-free radical species. Reactive oxygen species are highly reactive and can easily react with most biological molecules including proteins, lipids, lipoproteins and DNA. These free radicals are naturally scavenged by antioxidant mechanism in mammalians. Uncontrolled generation of free radicals is associated with lipid and protein peroxidation, resulting in cell structural damage, tissue injury, or gene mutation and ultimately leading to a variety of pathophysiological disorders such as arthritis, diabetes, inflammation, cancer and genotoxicity (Kourounakis et al., 1999; Gulcin et al., 2002a). …show more content…
In certain circumstances, the body's natural defence mechanism becomes inefficient, which makes mandatory dietary intake of antioxidant compounds as an alternative, suggesting that there is an inverse relationship between dietary intake of antioxidants and the incidence of diseases caused by the deficiency of these substances. The commercially available synthetic antioxidants are used to reduce the deleterious effect of oxidative-induced reactions in food and biological systems. However, the potential toxicity of these synthetic antioxidants has aroused an increased interest in identifying alternative natural and safe sources of antioxidants, and the search for natural antioxidants, especially of marine origin, has notably increased in recent