Stilbenes: A new strategy for protecting light-sensitive foods, a review of their structure classification and singlet oxygen quenching mechanism

Natural stilbenes have been studied extensively as a result of their complicated structures and diverse biological activities. Singlet oxygen (1O2), a kind of reactive oxygen species (ROS) has a strong destructive effect on food systems (especially for light-sensitive foods). Many cutting-edge scientific studies have found that some stilbenes not only have extensive quenching properties for ROS, but also can selectively quench 1O2. However, the industry devoted too much energy on the development of more new stilbenes, lacking in-depth summaries and reflections on the characteristics of their basic structure and the mechanism of their extraordinary 1O2 quenching abilities. Therefore, we summarized the classification methods for stilbene compounds and evaluated similarities, differences and possible limitations of different classification methods. In addition, we described the role of different functional groups in stilbenes in quenching of 1O2 and summarized the quenching mechanism of 1O2 by stilbenes. By the way, the current application of stilbene compounds and their potential risks in the food industry were also mentioned in this article. The stilbenes can be used as antioxidants (especially new strategies against 1O2 oxidation) in food systems to improve the shelf life. At this stage, it is necessary to develop more effective and safe food antioxidant stilbenes based on their quenching mechanism.