Abstract
Natural products as disease remedies have a history of near 5,000 years (India, China and Greece), and even today, in this advanced technological age, a revival of interest is being witnessed in the use of natural or plant-based therapeutic agents for the treatment of several pathological conditions. Citrus fruits have been utilised as a traditional medicine in India, China, Korea and Japan, and many studies have highlighted the various biological properties of their phytophenolics which are suggested to be responsible for the prevention of degenerative diseases such as diabetes and cancer. With the background of comprehensive studies conducted on Mauritian citrus fruits, this chapter reviews some of the literature data on the phytophenolic contents, vitamin C composition and antioxidant functions of citrus extracts and emphasises on their potential applications in nutrition management programmes for diabetes and cancer chemoprevention.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are thankful to the University of Mauritius, University of Réunion (France) and Chhatrapati Shahu Ji Maharaj University Kanpur (India) for their full support. One of the authors (TB) is particularly thankful to Mr Gaurav Gaur, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and the Government of India for the award of the CV Raman International Senior Fellowship for African Researchers. Part of this work has been carried out in the context of this fellowship.
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Bahorun, T. et al. (2012). Phytophenolic Nutrients in Citrus: Biochemical and Molecular Evidence. In: Srivastava, A. (eds) Advances in Citrus Nutrition. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4171-3_3
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