The Methods for the Detection of Antioxidant Substances

Antioxidants and free radicals are widely discussed in the clinical and nutritional literature. Various reactive oxygen species (ROS) may be produced from normal biochemical, essential metabolic processes or from external sources as exposure to a variety of agents presented in the environment. Lipids, proteins, carbohydrates and DNA are all capable of reacting with ROS and can be implicated in etiology of various human disorders. The antioxidant system protects the organism from the effects of free radicals by scavenging them and thus preventing structural damage of cells. Measuring the individual components of the antioxidant system has provided important information about the defences against free radical effect. During the last decade, many analytical methods have been developed to determine the antioxidant activity of natural compounds and their mixtures in vitro. Some procedures involve the methods based on the generation of various radical species and their elimination by treatment with potential antioxidant compounds. The tests used for the evalution of total antioxidant activity are: Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity-TEAC, diphenylpicrylhydrazil - DPPH, oxygen radical absorbance capacity-ORAC and the methods testing the ability to prevent lipid peroxidation. The other group includes the procedures that are based on measurement of redox properties of compouds (ferric reducing antioxidant potential assay-FRAP, cyclic voltammetry, HPLC)