Deep Jyoti Bhuyan 1,*, Muhammad A. Alsherbiny 1,2 , Saumya Perera 1, Mitchell Low 1 , Amrita Basu 3, Okram Abemsana Devi 4, Mridula Saikia Barooah 4, Chun Guang Li 1 and
Konstantinos Papoutsis 5
1 NICM Health Research Institute, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia; muhammad.alsherbiny@pharma.cu.edu.eg or m.alsherbiny@westernsydney.edu.au (M.A.A.); Saumya.P@westernsydney.edu.au (S.P.); Mitchell.Low@westernsydney.edu.au (M.L.); C.Li@westernsydney.edu.au (C.G.L.)
2 Department of Pharmacognosy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Cairo University, Cairo 11562, Egypt
3 Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment, Masaryk University, Brno 62500, Czech; amrita@recetox.muni.cz
4 Department of Food Science and Nutrition, College of Community Science, Assam Agricultural University, Assam 785013, India; okramabemsana@gmail.com (O.A.D.); mridulabarooah@aau.ac.in (M.S.B.)
5 School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland; kostas.papoutsis@ucd.ie
* Correspondence: d.bhuyan@westernsydney.edu.au or deepjyoti.bhuyan@uon.edu.au; Tel.: +61-2-4620-3508
Abstract
Persea americana, commonly known as avocado, has recently gained substantial popularity and is often marketed as a “superfood” because of its unique nutritional composition, antioxidant content, and biochemical profile. However, the term “superfood” can be vague and misleading, as it is often associated with unrealistic health claims. This review draws a comprehensive summary and assessment of research performed in the last few decades to understand the nutritional and
therapeutic properties of avocado and its bioactive compounds. In particular, studies reporting the major metabolites of avocado, their antioxidant as well as bioavailability and pharmacokinetic properties, are summarized and assessed. Furthermore, the potential of avocado in novel drug discovery for the prevention and treatment of cancer, microbial, inflammatory, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases is highlighted. This review also proposes several interesting future directions for avocado research.
Keywords
avocado; Persea americana; metabolites; antioxidants; anticancer; antimicrobial; anti-inflammatory; diabetes; cardiovascular diseases (CVD); bioavailability and pharmacokinetic
