RESUMO
Over the past several years, natural antioxidants have attracted considerable interest as potential treatment for a wide variety of disease states, including cancer and other causes e.g. chronic inflammatory diseases and aging. Therefore, plant derived antioxidants are now receiving a special attention as they possess good antioxidant properties and hence a worldwide trend towards the use of natural phytochemicals present in fruits and vegetables have been reported. Numerous epidemiological studies indicate that consumption of cruciferous vegetables is associated with prevention of cardiovascular diseases and reduced incidence of cancers of the gastrointestinal tract and other sites. The substances that seem to be responsible for these properties are phenolic compounds (phenolic acids, flavonoids, polyphenols etc.) and sulphur-containing organic compound glucosinolates and their derived products. The present review focuses on the health promoting effects of phytochemicals and their beneficial bioactivities in Brassicaceae.