The Flavonoids in Biology and Medicine.

This critical review by Shils and Goodhart should put a stop to a great deal of the unhappy confusion which has prevailed in our understanding of blood coagulation and vascular inadequacy in conditions where nutritional factors are supposed to have a role. Ever since Szent-Györgi suggested the possibility of flavonoids having some essential biological function in mammalian physiology, in 1936, there have been discordant reports, many of which are magnificent examples of the ease with which observers are distracted by uncontrolled experiments, particularly when these are superimposed on very extensive clinical ignorance. In all the vast pile of papers written in this field there is small residue of useful clinical information. We obviously need such critical reviews as this wellwritten and well-organized one. It is a sad reflection on the editorial judgment of the last 20 years to see how much space in respectable journals has been taken by studies