Preface

Phenolic compounds as a large class of metabolites found in plants have attracted attention since long time ago due to their properties and the hope that they will show beneficial health effects when taken as dietary supplements. In this broad group of compounds, we find flavonoids, phenolic acids, and stilbenoids, being flavonoids, as the most isolated com‐ pounds. They can be found in fruits, roots, leaves, seeds and flowers, and their concentra‐ tion varies depending on many biotic or abiotic factors or development stage, agricultural practices, or edafo-climatic or geographic conditions. This book presents the state of the art of some of the natural sources of phenolic compounds, for example, medicinal plants, grapes, or blue maize, as well as the modern methods of extraction, quantification, and iden‐ tification, and there is a special section discussing the treatment, removal, and degradation of phenols, an important issue in those phenolics derived from the pharmaceutical or petro‐ chemical industries.
