Preface

Chapter 8 **Evaluation of Nutritional and Medicinal Properties of Opuntia**

Chapter 9 **Phytochemical Profiling of Soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.)**

Chapter 10 **Qualitative Analysis of Phytochemicals from Sea Buckthorn and**

Chapter 11 **Potential Adverse Effects of Alteration of Phytochemical Accumulation in Fruits and Vegetables 179**

Chapter 12 **An Evaluation of the Impact of Novel Processing Technologies on the Phytochemical Composition of Fruits and**

Vishal Ganessingh, Raeesah Sahibdeen and Rohanie Maharaj

Salem Alghamdi, Hussein Migdadi, Muhammad Khan, Ehab H. El-Harty, Megahed Ammar, Muhammad Farooq and Muhammad

Ana-Alexandra Sorescu, Alexandrina Nuta, Rodica-Mariana Ion and

Krishna N. Patel and Kalpeshkumar B. Ishnava

**Genotypes Using GC-MS Analysis 139**

**elatior Mill 121**

**Gooseberry 161**

Sechene Stanley Gololo

**Vegetables 189**

Lorena Iancu

Afzal

**VI** Contents

Phytochemicals are non-nutritive chemical compounds derived from plants and play a sig‐ nificant role in human disease prevention. Phytochemicals such as secondary metabolites and antioxidants have important medicinal properties. Allelochemicals released from plants also act as phytochemicals and show a significant ecological role. In this book the source of phytochemicals and their role in disease prevention, stress tolerance in plants, and accumu‐ lation in fruits and vegetables are discussed.

The role of phytochemicals and their phytoconstituents in human disease recovery is dis‐ cussed in this book. They play an important role in antioxidative stress tolerance and the free radical scavenging process. Moreover, major phytochemicals such as anthocyanin, fla‐ vonoids, and carotenoids have anticancer and wound healing capacities. The above aspects are presented in detail along with the medicinal properties of specific phytochemicals present in specific plant species. The book also includes the impact of modern agricultural practices and novel processing technologies on the accumulation of phytochemicals in fruits and vegetables.

Interesting research work and reviews on the sources of phytochemicals and their role in disease prevention, as well as pharmaceutically important medicinal plants, are collected to‐ gether in this book. Publication of this book would have been impossible without the contri‐ bution of many researchers around the world. Our sincere acknowledgment goes to the authors who contributed their valuable research work in this edition.

> **Dr. Toshiki Asao** Department of Agriculture Faculty of Life and Environmental Science Shimane University, Matsue, Japan

> **Dr. Md Asaduzzaman** Horticulture Research Centre Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute Gazipur, Bangladesh

**Chapter 1**

**Provisional chapter**

**Introductory Chapter: Phytochemicals and Disease**

**Introductory Chapter: Phytochemicals and Disease** 

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.81877

Phytochemicals, the nonnutritive chemical compounds derived from plants, play a significant role in human disease prevention. Phytochemicals such as secondary metabolites and antioxidants have important medicinal properties. This chapter will briefly outline the source of phytochemicals, their role in disease prevention, phytochemicals produced due to stress conditions, and accumulation of bioactive compounds in fruits and vegetables. It will also discuss the role of allelochemicals as phytochemicals that produced under stressed environment in the plant rhizosphere and neighboring plants leaving significant ecological role. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a general description of phytochemicals and their roles

Phytochemicals present in medicinal plants, such as alkaloids, tannins, saponins, flavonoids, phenols, steroids, carotenoids, etc., have several disease prevention activity [1]. These plantderived chemical compounds play important preventive activities mainly anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, antiaging, antimicrobial, antiparasitic, antidepressant, anticancer, antioxidant, and wound healing [2]. They also have great role in stress tolerance of plants and accumula-

Flavonoids are the most common bioactive compounds found in medicinal plants [3]. They have several preventive activities in human disease such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and wound-healing capacity [4–6]. Anticarcinogenic flavonoids

**2. Role of phytochemicals in disease prevention in human**

tion of many important bioactive compounds in fruits and vegetables.

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

**Prevention**

**1. Introduction**

in major diseases prevention.

**Prevention**

Md Asaduzzaman and Toshiki Asao

Md Asaduzzaman and Toshiki Asao

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81877

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

#### **Introductory Chapter: Phytochemicals and Disease Prevention Introductory Chapter: Phytochemicals and Disease Prevention**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.81877

Md Asaduzzaman and Toshiki Asao Md Asaduzzaman and Toshiki Asao

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.81877

**1. Introduction**

Phytochemicals, the nonnutritive chemical compounds derived from plants, play a significant role in human disease prevention. Phytochemicals such as secondary metabolites and antioxidants have important medicinal properties. This chapter will briefly outline the source of phytochemicals, their role in disease prevention, phytochemicals produced due to stress conditions, and accumulation of bioactive compounds in fruits and vegetables. It will also discuss the role of allelochemicals as phytochemicals that produced under stressed environment in the plant rhizosphere and neighboring plants leaving significant ecological role. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a general description of phytochemicals and their roles in major diseases prevention.
