Table 3.

Cardioprotective mechanisms of action of polyphenols.

Beneficial Effect	Specific Mechanism
Antioxidant	Generation of stable flavonoid radicals, increasing the protection of antioxidant systems and the elimination of ROS [83,84,85,86,87,88,89,90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97,98,99,100,101,102,103].
Antihypertensive	Modulate the RAAS and prompt an increase in the endothelium-derived nitric oxide concentration [125,126,127,128,129,130,131,132,133,134,135,136,137,138,139,140,141,142,143].
Anti-atherogenic	Through their antioxidant action, the diminished oxidation of LDL, and antiplatelet clumping action, they inhibit the formation and progression of atherosclerosis. They also, inhibit the oxidative degradation of lipoproteins and decrease the circulatory lipid levels [123,124,125,126,127,128,129].
Antiplatelet	Inhibitory effect on excessive platelet activation and produce decreased platelet adhesion [130,131,132,133,134,135,136,137].
Anti-inflammatory	Blocking inflammatory enzymes (COX, LOX, TK, PLA2s, protein kinase C), interfering with the production of prostaglandins, and suppressing the formation of PGs, LT, and TXA [159,160,161,162,163,164,165,166].