TABLE 1

Phytochemicals that activate the Nrf2 signaling pathway

Phytochemical	Target Tissue/Cells	Effects	Involved Molecular Mechanism	Reference
Carnosol	Rat pheochromocytoma PC12 cells	Attenuate oxidative stress	Activation of Nrf2/ARE signaling	Martin et al. (2004)
Curcumin	Vascular smooth muscle cells	Inhibition of cell growth	Translocation of Nrf2 into the nucleus	Pae et al. (2007)
EGCG	Endothelial cells	Reduce oxidative stress	Upregulation of Nrf2 in the nucleus	Wu et al. (2006)
Hydroxytyrosol	Human retinal pigment epithelial cells	Block mitochondrial dysfunction and apoptosis	Nrf2 activation	Zou et al. (2012b)
Mollugin	Human oral squamous carcinoma cells	Cell growth inhibition and apoptosis	Activation of Nrf2	Lee et al. (2013)
	Mouse hippocampal HT22 cells and microglial BV cells	Suppression of cell death and inflammation	Nuclear accumulation of Nrf2	Jeong et al. (2011)
Phytochemical-rich diets	Hypertensive rats	Reduce heart failure progression	Increased cardiac Nrf2 activity	Seymour et al. (2013)
Phytochemical combination	HL-1 cardiomyocytes	Increase antioxidant defenses and protect heart cells	Induced Nrf2 activation and phase II enzymes	Reuland et al. (2013)
	Human liver hepatoma cells	Cancer chemopreventive activity	Enhanced Nrf2/ARE pathway	Saw et al. (2011)
Procyanidin	HepG2 human hepatocarcinoma cells	Anticarcinogenic effect	Induction of Nrf2/ARE pathway	Bak et al. (2012b)
Resveratrol	Human erythroleukemia K562 cells	Induce detoxification reactions by activation of Nrf2/ARE/NQO1	Phosphorylation of Nrf2	Hsieh et al. (2006)
Silymarin	Human A549 adenocarcinoma cells	Reduce paraquat-induced toxicity	Induction of Nrf2	Podder et al. (2012)
Sulforaphane	Rat lymphocytes	Chemoprevention	Increased Nrf2 and target genes	Wang et al. (2012b)
	Rat cardiomyocytes	Cardiac cell survival	Nrf2 phosphorylation	Leoncini et al. (2011)
	COPD	Restore bacteria recognition and phagocytosis	Activation of Nrf2	Harvey et al. (2011)
	Human bladder cells and tissue	Inhibit carcinogen-induced DNA damage	Activation of Nrf2	Ding et al. (2010)

ARE, antioxidant response element; COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.