REVIEW article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutritional Immunology
This article is part of the Research TopicIntegrating Plant Metabolites into Comprehensive Approaches for Disease ManagementView all 4 articles
Transforming coffee from an empirical beverage to a targeted nutritional intervention: health effects of coffee's core functional components on chronic diseases
Provisionally accepted
Rui Peng1
Mengqi Lan1Yifei Zhang1Shishi Zhang1Beibei Yu1Xu Yang1
Shiming Li1
Zhenhua Liu1
Wenyi Kang1,2*- 1Henan University, Kaifeng, China
- 2National Research and Development Center for Edible Fungus Processing Technology, Henan University, Kaifeng, China
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As one of the most widely consumed beverages worldwide, coffee has garnered increasing scientific interest due to its potential health benefit in recent decades. Epidemiological studies have consistently shown that regular coffee consumption significantly reduces the incidence risks of various chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), Alzheimer's disease (AD), cardiovascular disorders, and nephropathies. Pharmacological research further supports these - 2 - findings, linking the protective effects of coffee to its complex composition of bioactive compounds. Coffee beans contain over 1,000 such compounds, with caffeine, trigonelline, chlorogenic acids (CGAs), cafestol, kahweol, and melanoidins constituting the core functional components. These phytochemicals act through multi-target, synergistic mechanisms that regulate neurological functions, metabolic homeostasis, and inflammatory pathways. This review systematically explores the major bioactive constituents of coffee, focusing on the molecular mechanisms underlying four key biological activities associated with chronic disease prevention: neuroprotection, anti-diabetic/anti-obesity effects, antioxidant activity, and anti-inflammatory properties. By elucidating these pharmacological pathways, we aim to establish a molecular theoretical foundation for repositioning coffee from an empirical beverage into a targeted nutritional intervention agent.
Keywords: Coffee, Caffeine, Chlorogenic acids, Neuroprotective Activity, Diabetes Mellitus, Obesity, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant
Received: 25 Aug 2025; Accepted: 28 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Peng, Lan, Zhang, Zhang, Yu, Yang, Li, Liu and Kang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wenyi Kang, kangweny@hotmail.com
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