Bioactives from culinary spices and herbs: a review

Abstract

Culinary spices and herbs have been used in food and beverages to enhance aroma, flavor, and color. They are rich in phytochemicals that provide significant antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. There is growing interest in identifying compounds from spices and herbs responsible for modulating oxidative and inflammatory stress to prevent diet-related diseases. This contribution will provide an overview of culinary spices and herbs, their classification, their sources or origins and more importantly, their chemical composition, antioxidant activity and their impacts on human health based on important and recent studies.