While most life on Earth requires oxygen to generate metabolic energy, oxygen is a highly reactive element that damages living organisms by producing reactive oxygen species. Consequently, organisms contain antioxidant metabolites and enzymes to prevent oxidative damage to cellular components such as DNA, proteins, and lipids. Antioxidant systems either prevent these reactive species from being formed or remove them before they can damage vital components of the cell.

In plants, reactive oxygen species are produced during photosynthesis, particularly under conditions of high light intensity. This effect is partly offset by the involvement of antioxidants to prevent the production of reactive oxygen species. For this reason, plants grown in high intensity sunlight environments are known to be rich in antioxidant content. Foods that contain high levels of antioxidants have long been considered important to human health.

Like plants, human skin also produces excessive reactive oxygen species when exposed to sunlight. Mediating excessive reactive oxygen species in the skin is important for maintaining healthy and youthful skin structure. In addition to avoiding excessive sun exposure, supplementing skin antioxidant content via the skin's surface has been a known strategy in the cosmetic industry. As such, collecting efficacious antioxidants from nature has been an important undertaking of the cosmetic ingredients industry. Access to the right plant materials and utlization of the most suitable extraction processes are both critical to the production of effective antiaging active cosmetic ingredients.