Plant Extracts as Antioxidant Additives for Food Industry

Plants have phenolic compounds with antioxidant activity. These compounds are distrib- uted in tissues and cells of plants and their abundance depends on the species, the part of the plant used, maturity stage, light hours, among others. On the other hand, the profile and quantity of phenolic compounds extracted from plant matrices changes depending on the species, cultivar, climate, and other factors. Plant extracts do not present a unique phenolic component, they correspond a mixture and its antioxidant activity will be affected by the concentration of each one and their action depends on this composition. In this chapter, some generalities about the phenolic compounds with antioxidant activity present in plant matrices will be exposed, also the principal methods for their extraction and quantification will be described and this information will be complemented with a review on applications of these compounds in food industry. In that sense, the reader can infer the importance of continue to studying and developing techniques to obtain, extract, and characterize this kind of compounds, also they can identify possible applica- tion of them, the most important, they can recognize them as an alternative to replace chemical synthetized antioxidants used in food industry improving the market of natural products.