Editorial
Lei Chen
Abstract
Owing to the complexity of phenolic compounds, various experimental approaches are employed to examine the characterization of the bioactive phenolic compounds from herbs and evaluate their biological effects to human body. In vivo and in vitro studies have confirmed that phenolic compounds act a crucial role against antioxidative, antimicrobial, anti-diabetic, antitumor and anti-inflammatory effects. This manuscript gives a perspective of distinctive relationship between chemical structure of phenolic compounds and their biological effects, indicating that the presences of C2=C3 double bond and 3-OH group were found to significantly enhance biological effect and chemical modification of phenolic compounds may have potentials as therapeutic agents and also could be used for the prediction and improvement of food quality.