Abstract
Recentlymany review papers regarding antioxidants fromdifferent sources and different extraction and quantification
procedures have been published. However none of them has all the information regarding antioxidants
(chemistry, sources, extraction and quantification). This article tries to take a different perspective on antioxidants
for the new researcher involved in this field. Antioxidants from fruit, vegetables and beverages play an important
role in human health, for example preventing cancer and cardiovascular diseases, and lowering the incidence of
different diseases. In this paper the main classes of antioxidants are presented: vitamins, carotenoids and
polyphenols. Recently, many analytical methodologies involving diverse instrumental techniques have been
developed for the extraction, separation, identification and quantification of these compounds. Antioxidants
have been quantified by different researchers using one or more of these methods: in vivo, in vitro, electrochemical,
chemiluminescent, electron spin resonance, chromatography, capillary electrophoresis, nuclear magnetic
resonance, near infrared spectroscopy and mass spectrometry methods.
