Abstract:Fruits, vegetables, grains, spices, and herbs are rich sources of dietary polyphenols. These polyphenols are closely associated with the nutritional value and biological activity of plants. Polyphenols can interact with polysaccharides, proteins, phospholipids, and other macromolecular substances and affect their activity and bioavailability. Inflammation is a defense response of the body to stimuli; excessive inflammatory responses can easily harm the human body. Polyphenols exert anti-inflammatory effects by scavenging oxygen free radicals, changing the redox state of cells, preventing lipid peroxidation, inhibiting neutrophil extravasation, and suppressing the production of inflammatory factors. Dietary polyphenols are predominantly found in vegetables, nuts, tea, and cocoa. In recent years, the mechanism whereby polyphenols mediate the occurrence of related inflammatory diseases by binding with various receptors has become a research hotspot. This paper summarizes the positive effects of dietary polyphenols on the treatment of inflammatory diseases, the anti-inflammatory activity of dietary polyphenols, the molecular mechanism underlying their involvement in inflammatory responses, the specific receptors and binding sites of different polyphenols, and the inflammatory signaling pathways affected by polyphenols. The findings of the present study will provide insights for further research on the mechanisms underlying the anti-inflammatory activity of polyphenols and a theoretical basis for the development of polyphenol-rich functional foods.
