Natural Inflammatory Molecules in Fruits and Vegetables.

The antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of fruits and vegetables make them distinctly placed and renowned food articles. They are rich in vitamins, minerals, polyphenols and fibres, also having high water contents. It is now believed that despite being rich in antioxidants, fruits and vegetables might lead to cytotoxicity because of improper ways of farming, storage and processing. The cytotoxicity appears to be related with depletion of human body’s glutathione level as a result of consumption of poor diet - both the lack of fruits and vegetables and the inclusion of improperly farmed or stored or processed fruit-vegetable commodities - leading to infection, chronic diseases, and constant inflammation. Glutathione is considered as one of the body’s important antioxidants, because it is able to considerably reduce oxidative stress via decomposition of free radicals in the body. This molecule is a tripeptide composed of three amino acids – cysteine, glutamic acid, and glycine - present in mammalian tissues, which acts as free radical scavenger and detoxifying agent. Not only the improperly farmed or stored or processed fruits and vegetables, but also vegetables containing appreciably high amounts of naturally occurring glycoalkaloids like potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants and peppers might lead to depletion of body’s glutathione level, and give rise to inflammation. This Chapter is an attempt to present a scenario of fruits-vegetables which despite being rich in antioxidants can cause cytotoxicity, based on current researches.