Bioactive components in mediterranean diets

Abstract

The uniqueness of diets consumed by local populations living in the Mediterranean basin, e.g., in the southern European countries and Crete, can be attributed to a number of factors, from local climatic conditions to ethnobotanical and cultural factors. The prevalence of local foods, especially wild plant foods and wild unbred animals, consumed by the populations characterise their diets. These foods are rich in bioactive compounds, generated in adaptation to local stressful environmental conditions, leading to a pro-oxidant situation. Also, the presence of the Mediterranean Sea has facilitated waves of seafaring colonists from one country to another, establishing local coastal enclaves and contributing to diversified dietary habits.

Olive oil The most common food is olive oil, rich in bioactive phenols. These compounds exert potent activities in vitro in animals and in humans consuming phenol-rich oils. The effects are not only antioxidant (AO), but also modulatory on cell signalling, resulting e.g., in inhibition of prothrombotic and inflammatory parameters.

Local plants Wild plants still consumed in local areas are rich in polyphenols (PP), reaching concentrations considerably higher than in cultivated plants. PP extracted from several edible wild plants from Crete, southern Italy and Spain exert biological effects in in vitro and animal tests, indicating potent AO and cellular modulatory activities.

Mechanisms The generation of bioactive compounds in plants exposed to the Mediterranean climate depends on mechanisms such as xenohormesis, leading to generation of molecules that, through the activation of the sirtuin system in plants and subsequently in animals eating them, favour adaptation to a deteriorating environment.