João C.M. Barreira is grateful to Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) for his post-doctoral research grant (SFRH/BPD/72802/2012), financed by POPH-QREN and subsidizedby FSE and MCTES. This work received financial support from theEuropean Union (FEDER funds through COMPETE) and NationalFunds (FCT) through project Pest-C/EQB/LA0006/2013. The workalso received financial support from the European Union (FEDERfunds) under the framework of QREN through Project NORTE-07-0124 FEDER-000069.
Oxidative stress has a relevant part in the etiology of several diseases and metabolic disorders, being
reasonable to expect that antioxidant compounds might have beneficial effects in health maintenance
or disease prevention. Antioxidant compounds might be isolated and characterized from different plant
constituents, such as roots, stems, bark, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds, using proper extraction methods.
The Asteraceae family has a worldwide distribution, with special relevance in the Mediterranean, Eastern
Europe and Asia Minor, being acknowledged about 25 000 species integrated in approximately 1000
genera. In addition to the anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antipyretic potential of some of these species,
their high antioxidant power, as proven in research works with extracts (of roots, stems, bark, leaves,
flowers, fruits and seeds) should be highlighted. Herein, the Asteraceae species with highest potential as
sources of natural antioxidants with potential uses in medicine and in pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food
industries were identified. The species were selected based on their botanical representativeness, being
identified the 9 most relevant species: Achillea millefolium L., Acmella oleraceae Murr., Artemisia absinthium
L., Bidens pilosa L., Carthamus tinctorius L., Inula crithmoides L., Matricaria recutita L., Otanthus maritimus L.
and Parthenium hysterophorus L.. With the obtained information, it could be concluded that the bioactivity
of the selected Asteraceae species lacks a complete characterization, constituting a research scope with
great potential to be exploited in the development of dietary supplements, bioactive food ingredients or
pharmaceutical based products with application in food industry, dermocosmetics or medicine.
