Absorption and Metabolism of Dietary Chlorogenic Acids and Procyanidins

Chlorogenic acids and procyanidins are commonly consumed polyphenols. Chlorogenic acids are present in the diet in many foods including coffee and fruits, and procyanidins are found in many fruits and in cocoa. They are poorly absorbed in their intact forms, but their catabolites, after metabolism by colonic microbiota, are very efficiently absorbed. The catabolites include dihydrocinnamic and other phenolic acids, which appear in the plasma later than the intact parent compounds. These catabolites have additional biological activities, which may even exceed that of the intact parent compounds in vivo.