The leaves of the Mimosa pudica plant contain a high concentration of antioxidants.

Antioxidants can slow down mechanisms that damage key cellular compounds.  In a sense, you can think of antioxidant action as slowing the cellular aging process.  Some antioxidants have been synthesized, but there are questions about their safety.  Meanwhile, there are some plants that produce natural antioxidants in the form of flavonoids and phenolics, such as the Mimosa pudica plant.  One way of isolating those compounds from the plant is by sonicating in an ultrasonic cleaner filled with a solvent.  After extraction, the different antioxidants can be isolated using nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry.

For further information visit www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

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