http://www.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/133/5/1286?etoc

Several Culinary and Medicinal Herbs Are Important Sources of Dietary
Antioxidants
Steinar Dragland, Haruki Senoo*, Kenjiro Wake, Kari Holte** and Rune
Blomhoff**,2

The Norwegian Crop Research Institute, Apelsvold Research Station Div. Kise,
N-2350 Nes, Norway; * Department of Anatomy, Akita University School of
Medicine, Akita 010-8543, Japan;  Minophagen Pharmaceutical Company, Tokyo
160-0004, Japan; and ** Institute for Nutrition Research, Faculty of
Medicine, University of Oslo, Blindern, 0316 Oslo, Norway



2To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
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We assessed the contribution of culinary and medicinal herbs to the total
intake of dietary antioxidants. Our results demonstrate that there is more
than a 1000-fold difference among antioxidant concentrations of various
herbs. Of the dried culinary herbs tested, oregano, sage, peppermint, garden
thyme, lemon balm, clove, allspice and cinnamon as well as the Chinese
medicinal herbs Cinnamomi cortex and Scutellariae radix all contained very
high concentrations of antioxidants (i.e., >75 mmol/100 g). In a normal
diet, intake of herbs may therefore contribute significantly to the total
intake of plant antioxidants, and be an even better source of dietary
antioxidants than many other food groups such as fruits, berries, cereals
and vegetables. In addition, the herbal drug, Stronger Neo-Minophagen C, a
glycyrrhizin preparation used as an intravenous injection for the treatment
of chronic hepatitis, boosts total antioxidant intake. It is tempting to
speculate that several of the effects due to these herbs are mediated by
their antioxidant activities.



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KEY WORDS: antioxidants . herbs . reductants . humans . oxidative stress