Phenylpropanoids as a new class of plant-derived antioxidants feasible for skin diseases. What we learn from plant defense

Phenylpropanoids (PPs) belong to the largest group of secondary metabolites produced by plants, mainly, in response to biotic or abiotic stresses such as infections, wounding, UV irradiation, and exposure to ozone, pollutants, and other hostile environmental conditions. It is thought that the molecular basis for the protective action of PPs in plants is their antioxidant and free radical scavenging properties. Learning from plants, free radical-driven, molecular and cellular processes modulated by selected glycosilated PPs produced biotechnologically in the cultures of medicinal plant cells were studied in free radical - generating systems, primary keratinocyte and fibroblast cultures, in the in vivo models of skin pathologies (aseptic inflammation and wound healing), as well as in the limited case-controlled clinical study.