Natural Products Group, Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK AB21 9SB.
Food Funct. 2011 Sep;2(9):515-20. doi: 10.1039/c1fo10128e. Epub 2011 Aug 30.
Salicylic acid and related compounds are produced by plants as part of their defence systems against pathogen attack and environmental stress. First identified in myrtle and willow, the medical use of salicylate-rich preparations as anti-inflammatory and antipyretic treatments may date back to the third millennium BC. It is now known that salicylates are widely distributed throughout the plant kingdom, and they are therefore present in plant products of dietary relevance. In the UK, major food sources are tomato-based sauces, fruit and fruit juice, tea, wine, and herbs and spices. In mammalian cells, salicylic acid demonstrates several bioactivities that are potentially disease-preventative, including the inhibition of production of potentially neoplastic prostaglandins, which arise from the COX-2 mediated catalysis of arachidonic acid. Moreover, it appears to be readily absorbed from the food matrix. This has led some to suggestions that the recognised effects of consuming fruit and vegetables on lowering the risk of several diseases may be due, in part, to salicylates in plant-based foods. However, published estimates of daily salicylic acid intake vary markedly, ranging from 0.4 to 200 mg day(-1), so it is unclear whether the Western diet can provide sufficient salicylates to exert a disease-preventative activity. Some ethnic cuisines that are associated with lowered disease risk may contain considerably more salicylic acid than is obtainable from a Western diet. However known protective effects of acetylsalicylic acid (Aspirin™) may have lead to an over-emphasis on the importance of dietary salicylates compared with other bioactive plant phenolics in the diet.
水杨酸和相关化合物是植物作为其防御系统的一部分产生的，以抵御病原体攻击和环境压力。水杨酸最初在桃金娘科植物和柳树中被发现，富含水杨酸盐的制剂作为抗炎和退热治疗的医学用途可能可以追溯到公元前三千年。现在已知水杨酸广泛分布于植物界，因此它们存在于具有饮食相关性的植物产品中。在英国，主要的食物来源是番茄基酱汁、水果和果汁、茶、葡萄酒以及香草和香料。在哺乳动物细胞中，水杨酸表现出几种潜在的预防疾病的生物活性，包括抑制可能致癌的前列腺素的产生，这些前列腺素是由 COX-2 介导的花生四烯酸催化产生的。此外，它似乎很容易从食物基质中被吸收。这使得一些人认为，食用水果和蔬菜对降低多种疾病风险的公认效果可能部分归因于植物性食物中的水杨酸。然而，已发表的每日水杨酸摄入量估计值差异很大，范围从 0.4 到 200 毫克/天，因此尚不清楚西方饮食是否能提供足够的水杨酸来发挥预防疾病的作用。一些与降低疾病风险相关的民族菜肴可能含有比西方饮食中更多的水杨酸。然而，乙酰水杨酸（阿司匹林）的已知保护作用可能导致人们过分强调饮食中的水杨酸与饮食中其他生物活性植物酚类相比的重要性。
