Cyclodextrins and antioxidants

In recent years, the growth of the functional foods industry has increased research into new compounds with high added value for use in the fortification of traditional products. One of the most promising functional food groups is those enriched in antioxidant compounds of a lipophilic nature. In spite of the numerous advantages reported for such antioxidant molecules, they may also have disadvantages that impede their use in functional foods, although these problems may well avoided by the use of encapsulant agents such as cyclodextrins. This explains the recent increase in the number of research papers dealing with the complexation of different guest molecules possesing important antioxidant properties using natural and modified cyclodextrins. This paper presents a review of the most recent studies on the complexes formed between several important types of antioxidant compounds and cyclodextrins, focusing on the contradictory data reported in the literature concerning to the antioxidant activity of the host/guest molecule complexes, the different complexation constants reported for identical complexes, the bioavailability of the antioxidant compound in the presence of cyclodextrins and recommendation concerning the use of natural or modified cyclodextrins. Moreover, the use of cyclodextrins as antibrowning agents to prevent enzymatic browning in different foods is revised. Finally, we look at studies which suggest that cyclodextrins act as ''secondary antioxidants," enhancing the ability of traditional antioxidants to prevent enzymatic browning.