Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Publication
    Analytical criteria to quantify and compare the antioxidant and pro-oxidant capacity in competition assays: The bell protection function
    The development of a convenient mathematical application for testing the antioxidant and pro-oxidant potential of standard and novel therapeutic agents is essential for the research community and food industry in order to perform more precise evaluations of products and processes. In this work, a simple non-linear dose–time tool to test the effectiveness of compounds for competitive assays is presented. The model helps to describe accurately the antioxidant and pro-oxidant response as a function of time and dose by two criteria values and allows one to perform easily comparisons of both capacities from different compounds. The quantification procedure developed was applied to two well known in vitro competition assays, the β-carotene and crocin bleaching asymptotic reactions. The dose–time dependency of the response of commercial antioxidants and some expected pro-oxidant compounds was evaluated in this study and the results showed low experimental error. In addition, as an illustrative example of the capabilities of the criteria proposed, the quantification of the combined effect of an antioxidant and a pro-oxidant was analyzed. Afterwards, the model was verified for other relevant competitive methods, using available experimental data from the bibliography. Its application is simple, it provides parametric estimates which characterize the response, and it facilitates rigorous comparisons among the effects of different compounds and experimental approaches. In all experimental data tested, the calculated parameters were always statistically significant (Student's t-test, α = 0.05), the equations were consistent (Fisher's F-test) and the goodness of fit coefficient of determination was higher than 0.98.
    Scopus© Citations 1  327
  • Publication
    A new microplate procedure for simultaneous assessment of lipophilic and hydrophilic antioxidants and pro-oxidants, using crocin and β-carotene bleaching methods in a single combined assay: Tea extracts as a case study
    β-Carotene and crocin bleaching reactions are the basis of two methods extensively used to quantify antioxidant and pro-oxidant activities. They are appropriate for lipophilic and hydrophilic matrices, respectively, and can provide useful complementary information in the study of complex natural extracts containing components with variable degrees of polarity. In this regard, a microplate procedure (Carotene Combined Bleaching) is proposed that enables the combination of both methods in a single, informative and less expensive method which is also faster to carry out. As an illustrative model, the method was applied to test a set of commercial lipophilic and hydrophilic antioxidants and some predictable pro-oxidant agents. Afterwards, as a food compound case study, the antioxidant activity of five types of tea extracts (Green, Blue, White, Black and Red) were characterized and their equivalent potential activity was calculated using commercial antioxidants on the basis of the new procedure developed in this research. The activity of the tea extracts decreased in the following order: (a) In a predominantly lipophilic environment: White > Black > Red > Blue > Green tea extracts; and (b) In a predominantly hydrophilic environment: Green > Red > White > Black > Blue tea extracts
    Scopus© Citations 25  873
  • Publication
    An efficient methodology for quantification of synergy and antagonism in single electron transfer antioxidant assays
    The development of new antioxidant compounds for incorporation in foods is a rapidly growing research area. The resulting interactions between complex antioxidant mixtures are a key issue; however, research in this area is still in its infancy. Experimental antioxidant models based on conventional dose¿responses, that can predict joint effects of chemical mixtures, are urgently needed. This paper illustrates a methodological procedure for single electron transfer (SET) antioxidant assays to determine the synergistic and antagonistic effects of combining binary mixtures of antioxidants. Despite the abundance of theories and procedures to describe the synergistic/antagonistic effects in SET assays, they appear to be inadequate. Some features hindering advances in this field include the lack of: (1) experimental design, as a result of the extended use of unambiguous and simplistic procedures to quantify the effects of joint responses, based on single-dose values; (2) detailed mathematical hypotheses to quantify dose¿response values, which in addition causes the associated difficulties for assessing the statistical consistence of the results; and (3) functional approaches that consider the possibility of interactive effects. This paper proposes solutions for each of these limitations. Established ideas from existing fields are used to replace the current simplistic procedures, in order to quantify the effects of joint responses. One of the common hypothesis (known as concentration addition) for describing the combined effects is established for SET assays. A dose dependent mathematical model representative of this hypothesis, based on probability functions with meaningful parameters, is applied. The interactive effects between antioxidants are introduced into the model with simple auxiliary functions that describe the variations induced by each antioxidant in the parameters that define the effects of the other. Finally, a comprehensive index to summarize the complex parametric responses in one single value is proposed. Although the approach was experimentally demonstrated just in two classical SET assays (DPPH and ABTS), the results could be directly expanded in future to other types of classical SET assays. The methodology proposed is more complex than some relatively common approaches; nevertheless we believe that it is free of the controversial aspects listed above. Statistically consistent responses of null, synergy and antagonism effects were found when characterizing the interactions between several pairs of individual and complex mixtures of chemical antioxidant agents.
    Scopus© Citations 53  706