Correlation of total antioxidant capacity with reactive oxygen species (ROS) consumption measured by oxidative conversion.

Although both antioxidant capacity and oxidative conversion (hazard) are important in food and bioanalytical chemistry, there is considerable confusion in the literature between the results of these two types of assays. After the generation of ROS in the medium via Fe(III)-H2O2 reaction, attenuation of total oxidative conversion (TOC; as measured by thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) and N,N-dimethyl-p-phenylenediamine (DMPD) assays) was tested for possible correlation with the total antioxidant capacity (TAC; as measured by cupric reducing antioxidant capacity (CUPRAC) and trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (ABTS/TEAC) assays) of the introduced antioxidant sample. The inverse relationship between oxidative conversion and antioxidant capacity was processed to establish a curvilinear relationship between the absolute values of TAC increments and TOC decrements as a function of added antioxidant concentration. This simple relationship may form a bridge between the two diverse disciplines of medical biochemistry and food analytical chemistry mainly using TOC and TAC results, respectively.

Selective determination of catechin among phenolic antioxidants with the use of a novel optical fiber reflectance sensor based on indophenol dye formation on nano-sized TiO2.

The optical sensor for "tea catechins" was built by immobilizing 2,2'-(1,4-phenylenedivinylene)bis-8-hydroxyquinoline (PBHQ) on TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs). The sensor worked by "indophenol blue" dye formation on PBHQ-immobilized TiO2 NPs as a result of p-aminophenol (PAP) autoxidation with dissolved O2 at pH 10. Among quercetin, rutin, naringenin, naringin, gallic acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, p-coumaric acid, catechin, epicatechin, epicatechin gallate, epigallocatechin, epigallocatechin gallate, and trolox, only catechin group antioxidants delayed the color formation on NPs, as measured by the reflectance signal at 710 nm. For quantitative analysis, reflectance signal versus time was recorded, and the difference between the areas under curve (ΔAUC) in the presence and absence of catechin was correlated (r = 0.98) to catechin concentration. The selectivity of the sensor for catechins was shown in tea infusions compared to other plant extracts and was ascribed to the nonplanar structure of catechin interfering with the formation of perfectly conjugated indophenol blue on TiO2 surface.