Phytochemicals in Nutrition and Health

, edited by Mark S Meskin, Wayne R Bidlack, Audra J Davies, and Stanley T Omaye, 2002, 224 pages, hardcover, $109.95. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL.

Department of Viticulture & Enology University of California, Davis One Shields Avenue Davis, CA 95616-8749 E-mail: alwaterhouse{at}ucdavis.edu

This book is a collection of chapters derived from presentations at the Third International Phytochemical Conference, "Phytochemicals: From Harvest to Health," held November 13–14, 2000, at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. The editors point out that some of the chapters are updates of prior conference proceedings.

The editors have done a good job of trying to cover a broad range of phytochemicals, including carotenoids, polyphenolics, and isothiocyanates. Some chapters, such as "Lycopene and Human Health," have a chemistry-class orientation, whereas others, such as "Phytochemicals in the Vaccinium Family: Bilberries, Blueberries, and Cranberries," take a commodity approach. Consequently, the coverage is not very systematic or consistent. This inconsistency in approach is unavoidable in books of this nature, in which each author provides a chapter and there is little opportunity for or expectation of editorial consistency. Some of the chapters, such as the Vaccinium chapter mentioned above, are quite thorough, but others, such as one entitled "Phytochemical Pharmacokinetics," are so general and brief that their points are hard to grasp.

Those issues aside, the major limitation of this book is that most of the material is nonevaluative. In other words, most of the authors cover the major issues fairly thoroughly but provide little critical appraisal of the significance of the various citations. Instead, in many cases, one finds a list of reports on the subtopic, such as antiinflammatory effects, or on the anticancer effects of particular foods or substances. However, the authors only infrequently make an attempt to appraise the significance of these observations. The exceptions are the chapters "Wine Polyphenols and Protection" and "Lycopene and Human Health," which do have concluding statements of the significance of the studies cited, as well as possible ideas for future studies to resolve unanswered questions. However, because of the general lack of analysis, this book can truly be considered an introduction only to the issues involved with phytochemicals. Readers will have to come to their own conclusions regarding the significance of phytochemicals and health.

The book also has limited value as a reference because of its lack of data tables. For instance, it would be useful to have tables listing the amounts of particular substances in particular foods, but such tables are infrequent. Many chapters do show chemical structures, which are helpful to readers from outside the field of phytochemical research. On balance, this book provides an uneven summary of recent studies across a broad range in the field but does not help the reader assess the significance of the topic.