Biological Oxidation Systems V2

Book excerpt: Biological Oxidation Systems, Volume II discusses the various antioxidants and antioxidant enzymes that play significant roles in protecting cells from deleterious reactions between their structural/functional components and the free radicals. This book examines the myriad chemical reactions of a cell's metabolic activity that produce a variety of free radicals. Comprised of three parts encompassing 35 chapters, this volume starts with an overview of the metabolism of xenobiotics during arachidonic acid metabolism. This book then discusses the various causes of human cancers and diseases, which include exposure to environmental chemicals and other toxicants. This text considers the dietary habits and nutritional factors that play an important role in the causation and development of several human cancers, including cancer of the breast, colon, prostate, and other organs. Other chapters discuss the toxic effects of several xenobiotics that involve free-radical mechanisms. Biochemists, biophysicists, microbiologists, organic chemists, food chemists, and medical scientists will find this book extremely useful.