Over the past few decades, inflammation has been recognized as a major risk factor for various human diseases. Acute inflammation is short-term, self-limiting and it's easy for host defenses to return the body to homeostasis. Chronic inflammatory responses are predispose to a pathological progression of chronic illnesses characterized by infiltration of inflammatory cells, excessive production of cytokines, dysregulation of cellular signaling and loss of barrier function. Targeting reduction of chronic inflammation is a beneficial strategy to combat several human diseases. Flavonoids are widely present in the average diet in such foods as fruits and vegetables, and have been demonstrated to exhibit a broad spectrum of biological activities for human health including an anti-inflammatory property. Numerous studies have proposed that flavonoids act through a variety mechanisms to prevent and attenuate inflammatory responses and serve as possible cardioprotective, neuroprotective and chemopreventive agents. In this review, we summarize current knowledge and underlying mechanisms on anti-inflammatory activities of flavonoids and their implicated effects in the development of various chronic inflammatory diseases.

Tea is the most popular flavored and functional drink worldwide. The nutritional value of tea is mostly from the tea polyphenols that are reported to possess a broad spectrum of biological activities, including anti-oxidant properties, reduction of various cancers, inhibition of inflammation, and protective effects against diabetes, hyperlipidemia and obesity. Tea polyphenols include catechins and gallic acid in green and white teas, and theaflavins and thearubigins as well as other catechin polymers in black and oolong teas. Accurate analysis of black tea polyphenols plays a significant role in the identification of black tea contents, quality control of commercial tea beverages and extracts, differentiation of various contents of theaflavins and catechins and correlations of black tea identity and quality with biological activity, and most importantly, the establishment of the relationship between quantitative tea polyphenol content and its efficacy in animal or human studies. Global research in tea polyphenols has generated much in vitro and in vivo data rationally correlating tea polyphenols with their preventive and therapeutic properties in human diseases such as cancer, and metabolic and cardiovascular diseases etc. Based on these scientific findings, numerous tea products have been developed including flavored tea drinks, tea-based functional drinks, tea extracts and concentrates, and dietary supplements and food ingredients, demonstrating the broad applications of tea and its extracts, particularly in the field of functional food.

Chemoprevention, a relatively new and promising strategy to prevent cancer, is defined as the use of natural dietary compounds and/or synthetic substances to block, inhibit, reverse, or retard the process of carcinogenesis. The chemopreventive effects elicited by these natural dietary compounds are believed to include antioxidative, anti-inflammatory activity, induction of phase II enzymes, apoptosis, and cell cycle arrest. Many mechanisms have been shown to account for the anticarcinogenic actions of natural dietary compounds; attention has recently been focused on intracellular-signaling cascades as common molecular targets for various chemopreventive natural dietary compounds. In this critical review, we will summarize current knowledge on natural dietary compounds that act through the signaling pathways and modulate gene expression to induce detoxifying enzymes, programmed cell death, anti-inflammatory, and anti-proliferative effects, thus providing evidence for these substances in cancer chemopreventive action (128 references).