Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Feb 19:15:640648.
doi: 10.3389/fnins.2021.640648. eCollection 2021.

Citrus Polyphenols in Brain Health and Disease: Current Perspectives

Matthew G Pontifex  1 , Mohammad M A H Malik  1 , Emily Connell  1 , Michael Müller  1 , David Vauzour  1
Affiliations
Review

Citrus Polyphenols in Brain Health and Disease: Current Perspectives

Matthew G Pontifex et al. Front Neurosci. .

Abstract

In addition to essential micronutrients such as vitamin C, citrus fruits represent a considerably rich source of non-essential bioactive compounds, in particular flavanones which form a sub-set of the flavonoid group. Preclinical studies have demonstrated the neuroprotective potential of citrus flavonoids and have highlighted both the well-established (anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties), and newly emerging (influence upon blood-brain barrier function/integrity) mechanistic actions by which these neurological effects are mediated. Encouragingly, results from human studies, although limited in number, appear to support this preclinical basis, with improvements in cognitive performance and disease risk observed across healthy and disease states. Therefore, citrus fruits - both as whole fruit and 100% juices - should be encouraged within the diet for their potential neurological benefit. In addition, there should be further exploration of citrus polyphenols to establish therapeutic efficacy, particularly in the context of well-designed human interventions.

Keywords: cognition; flavonoids; gut-brain axis; neuroprotection; orange juice (OJ).

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

MP and DV received unrestricted honorariums from the Fruit Juice Science Centre. The article reflects the views of the authors alone, and the funding source had no role in the preparation or submission of the manuscript. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The handling editor declared a past co-authorship with one of the authors DV.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Polyphenol categorization – polyphenol describes a compound with a chemical structure containing one or more phenolic rings and can be classified into four main groups: phenolic acids, lignans, stilbenes, and flavonoids. Flavonoids represent the main polyphenolic component of citrus fruits and can be subdivided into six further subgroups. Flavanones are particularly abundant in citrus fruits and include hesperidin as one of the major flavanones. Figure created with BioRender.com.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Agosta F., Caso F., Filippi M. (2013). Dementia and neuroimaging. J. Neurol. 260 685–691. 10.1007/s00415-012-6778-x - DOI - PubMed
    1. Alharbi M. H., Lamport D. J., Dodd G. F., Saunders C., Harkness L., Butler L. T., et al. (2016). Flavonoid-rich orange juice is associated with acute improvements in cognitive function in healthy middle-aged males. Eur. J. Nutr. 55 2021–2029. 10.1007/s00394-015-1016-9 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Antunes M. S., Cattelan Souza L., Ladd F. V. L., Ladd A., Moreira A. L., Bortolotto V. C., et al. (2020). Hesperidin ameliorates anxiety-depressive-like behavior in 6-OHDA model of Parkinson’s disease by regulating striatal cytokine and neurotrophic factors levels and dopaminergic innervation loss in the striatum of mice. Mol. Neurobiol. 57 3027–3041. 10.1007/s12035-020-01940-3 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Antunes M. S., Goes A. T., Boeira S. P., Prigol M., Jesse C. R. (2014). Protective effect of hesperidin in a model of Parkinson’s disease induced by 6-hydroxydopamine in aged mice. Nutrition 30 1415–1422. 10.1016/j.nut.2014.03.024 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Antunes M. S., Jesse C. R., Ruff J. R., de Oliveira Espinosa D., Gomes N. S., Altvater E. E. T., et al. (2016). Hesperidin reverses cognitive and depressive disturbances induced by olfactory bulbectomy in mice by modulating hippocampal neurotrophins and cytokine levels and acetylcholinesterase activity. Eur. J. Pharmacol. 789 411–420. 10.1016/j.ejphar.2016.07.042 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources