This review summarizes the multifaceted aspects of antioxidants and the basic kinetic models of inhibited autoxidation and analyzes the chemical principles of antioxidant capacity assays. Depending upon the reactions involved, these assays can roughly be classified into two types:  assays based on hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) reactions and assays based on electron transfer (ET). The majority of HAT-based assays apply a competitive reaction scheme, in which antioxidant and substrate compete for thermally generated peroxyl radicals through the decomposition of azo compounds. These assays include inhibition of induced low-density lipoprotein autoxidation, oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC), total radical trapping antioxidant parameter (TRAP), and crocin bleaching assays. ET-based assays measure the capacity of an antioxidant in the reduction of an oxidant, which changes color when reduced. The degree of color change is correlated with the sample's antioxidant concentrations. ET-based assays include th...

The Chemistry behind Antioxidant Capacity Assays

The human diet contains a great variety of natural mutagens and carcinogens, as well as many natural antimutagens and anticarcinogens. Many of these mutagens and carcinogens may act through the generation of oxygen radicals. Oxygen radicals may also play a major role as endogenous initiators of degenerative processes, such as DNA damage and mutation (and promotion), that may be related to cancer, heart disease, and aging. Dietary intake of natural antioxidants could be an important aspect of the body’s defense mechanism against these agents. Many antioxidants are being identified as anticarcinogens. Characterizing and optimizing such defense systems may be an important part of a strategy of minimizing cancer and other age-related diseases.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/221/4617/1256.full.pdf

Dietary carcinogens and anticarcinogens Oxygen radicals and degenerative diseases

Because sunlight is diffuse and intermittent, substantial use of solar energy to meet humanity’s needs will probably require energy storage in dense, transportable media via chemical bonds. Practical, cost effective technologies for conversion of sunlight directly into useful fuels do not currently exist, and will require new basic science. Photosynthesis provides a blueprint for solar energy storage in fuels. Indeed, all of the fossil-fuel-based energy consumed today derives from sunlight harvested by photosynthetic organisms. Artificial photosynthesis research applies the fundamental scientific principles of the natural process to the design of solar energy conversion systems. These constructs use different materials, and researchers tune them to produce energy efficiently and in forms useful to humans. Fuel production via natural or artificial photosynthesis requires three main components. First, antenna/reaction center complexes absorb sunlight and convert the excitation energy to electrochemical ener...

/pdf/solar-fuels-via-artificial-photosynthesis-24g8xk966y.pdf

Solar Fuels via Artificial Photosynthesis

For more than 70 years, researchers in several areas of science have been intrigued by the physical and chemical properties of the lowest excited states of molecular oxygen. With two singlet states lying close above its triplet ground state, the O2 molecule possesses a very unique configuration, which gives rise to a very rich and easily accessible chemistry, and also to a number of important photophysical interactions. In particular, photosensitized reactions of the first excited state, O2(∆g), play a key role in many natural photochemical and photobiological processes, such as photodegradation and aging processes including even photocarcinogenesis. Reactions of O2(∆g) are associated with significant applications in several fields, including organic synthesis, bleaching processes, and, most importantly, the photodynamic therapy of cancer, which has now obtained regulatory approval in most countries for the treatment of several types of tumors. The development of both applications and novel observation techniques has strongly accelerated during the past few years. Significant recent advances include, for example, the development of novel luminescent singlet oxygen probes,1-4 the time-resolved detection of O2(∆g) in a transmission microscope,5 the first time-resolved measurements of singlet oxygen luminescence in vivo,6 and the observation of oxygen quenching of triplet-excited single molecules.7 Experimental and theoretical studies on the mechanisms of photosensitized formation of excited O2 states and of their deactivation have been performed for almost 40 years. While most early liquid-phase studies were exclusively concerned with O2(∆g), recent technological advances also made possible time-resolved investigations of the second excited state, O2(Σg), which can be formed in competition with O2(∆g) in many cases. A significant number of * Corresponding author. Tel.: ++49 69 79829448. Fax: ++49 69 79829445. E-mail: R.Schmidt@chemie.uni-frankfurt.de. 1685 Chem. Rev. 2003, 103, 1685−1757

Physical mechanisms of generation and deactivation of singlet oxygen.

Recently, there has been growing interest in research into the role of plant-derived antioxidants in food and human health. The beneficial influence of many foodstuffs and beverages including fruits, vegetables, tea, coffee, and cacao on human health has been recently recognized to originate from their antioxidant activity. For this purpose, the most commonly methods used in vitro determination of antioxidant capacity of food constituents are reviewed and presented. Also, the general chemistry underlying the assays in the present paper was clarified. Hence, this overview provides a basis and rationale for developing standardized antioxidant capacity methods for the food, nutraceutical, and dietary supplement industries. In addition, the most important advantages and shortcomings of each method were detected and highlighted. The chemical principles of these methods are outlined and critically discussed. The chemical principles of methods of 2,2′-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonate) radical (ABTS·+) scavenging, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH·) radical scavenging, Fe3+–Fe2+ transformation assay, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay, cupric ions (Cu2+) reducing power assay (Cuprac), Folin-Ciocalteu reducing capacity (FCR assay), peroxyl radical scavenging, superoxide anion radical (O
 2
 ·−
 ) scavenging, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) scavenging, hydroxyl radical (OH·) scavenging, singlet oxygen (1O2) quenching assay and nitric oxide radical (NO·) scavenging assay are outlined and critically discussed. Also, the general antioxidant aspects of main food components were discussed by a number of methods which are currently used for detection of antioxidant properties food components. This review consists of two main sections. The first section is devoted to main components in the foodstuffs and beverages. The second general section is some definitions of the main antioxidant methods commonly used for determination of antioxidant activity of components in the foodstuffs and beverages. In addition, there are given some chemical and kinetic basis and technical details of the used methods.

Antioxidant activity of food constituents: an overview

— 
Luminescence of 1O2 (1270 nm) accompanying energy transfer to oxygen from photoexcited (triplet) molecules of sensitizers in air saturated solutions has been investigated. The luminescence was observed in CC14, CS2 and freon with the use of porphyrins, chlorophylls, pheophytins and aromatic hydrocarbons as sensitizers. The lifetime and quantum yield of the luminescence depended on the nature of the solvents. pigments and their concentrations. The maximum values of these parameters were equal to 28 ± 5 ms and 5 ± 4 times 10--5, respectively. The quantum yield of 1O2 generation by pigments has been measured and the results used for determining the quantum yields of intersystem crossing in the pigment molecules. The rate constants of 1O2 reaction with different substances have been determined with the aid of luminescence quenching. It has been shown that along with β-carotene. Chls, pheophytins, and some porphyrins are also very active quenchers of 1O2, The quenching effect depends on their molecular structure and on the presence and nature of the central metal atom. Quenching 1O2 by the pigments is due mainly to a “physical” mechanism (without destruction of the pigments). The destructive “chemical” quenching is by 1–4 orders of magnitude less effective and is accompanied with photochemiluminescence of the pigments. The experiments on 1O2 generation and quenching indicate that energy of triplet states of bacteriochlorophyll and bacteriopheophytin is somewhat higher than that of 1Δg oxygen. The data demonstrate wide possibilities of the luminescence studied as a method for investigating 1O2 reactivity and photophysical properties of sensitizers.

Photoluminescence of singlet oxygen in pigment solutions

Rise and decay kinetics of photosensitized singlet oxygen luminescence in water. Measurements with nanosecond time-correlated single photon counting technique

https://febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1016/0014-5793%2882%2980830-2

Effect of extraction and re-addition of manganese on light reactions of photosystem- II preparations.

The triplet states of pheophorbide a and pheophytin a were studied in several environments by direct measurement of the phosphorescence of the pigments and photosensitized singlet oxygen (1O2 luminescence. The spectra, lifetimes and quantum yields of phosphorescence and the quantum yields of 1O2 generation were determined. These parameters are similar for monomeric molecules of both pigments in all the environments studied. Aggregation of the pigment molecules leads to a strong decrease in the phosphorescence and 1O2 luminescence intensities, which is probably due to a large decrease in the triplet lifetime and triplet quantum yield in the aggregates. The results obtained for pheophorbide a and pheophytin a are compared with those previously, reported for chlorophyll a. The data suggest that the photodynamic activity of the pigments in living tissues is probably determined by the monomeric pigment molecules formed in hydrophobic cellular structures. Aggregated molecules seem to have a much lower activity.

Alexander A. Krasnovsky

Papers

Photoluminescence of singlet oxygen in pigment solutions

Rise and decay kinetics of photosensitized singlet oxygen luminescence in water. Measurements with nanosecond time-correlated single photon counting technique

Effect of extraction and re-addition of manganese on light reactions of photosystem- II preparations.

Photophysical studies of pheophorbide a and pheophytin a. Phosphorescence and photosensitized singlet oxygen luminescence.

Quantum yield of photosensitized luminescence and radiative lifetime of singlet (1Δg) molecular oxygen in solutions