Antioxidants chemical structures

The antioxidant properties of phytoestrogens have been studied in vitro and it has been suggested that these may be related to the chemical structure... 

Chemical and thermal stabilizers both inactivate the byproducts of degradation processes, preventing them from causing further damage to the polymer. Their chemical structure and mobility in the part define their effectiveness in any given polymeric system. The most common type of chemical stabilizers are antioxidants. 

The competition between antioxidant and prooxidant activity of flavonoids depends firstly on their chemical structure. If we suppose that the oxidation of flavonoids (Reaction (17)) takes place by one-electron transfer mechanism, then it must depend on the capacity of flavonoids to donate an electron, i.e., on their one-electron oxidation potentials. 

The competition between antioxidant and prooxidant activity of flavonoids depends firstly on their chemical structure. If we suppose that the oxidation of flavonoids (Reaction... 

After benzoylation, it was possible to analyze together the food substances of varying chemical structures, such as alcohols, esters of 4-hydroxybenzoic acid, phenolic antioxidants, saccharides, and sugar alcohols. The method allowed the determination of these substances in different matrices by the same analytical procedure, using the same cleanup. The preservatives were separated on an RP-18 column. Acetonitrile-water (50 35) or acetonitrile-water-butylmethyl ether (110 35 40) were used as mobile phases. Detection was UV at 230 nm (71). 

Fig. 9.4 Chemical structures of cellular lipids that act as endogenous antioxidants. Choline plasmalogens (a) ethanolamine plasmalogens (b) ganglioside (c) and vitamin E (a-tocopherol) (d)...

Fig. 9.5 Chemical structures of low molecular weight antioxidants Melatonin (a) ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) (b) glutathione (c) lipoic acid (d) a-tocopherol (Vitamin E) (e) and a-tocotrienol (f)...

Fig. 9.6 Chemical structures of antioxidants in phase III clinical trials. Tirilazad mesylate (a) ...

Knowledge about the chemical structure of the antioxidative MRP is very limited. Only a few attempts have been made to characterize them. Evans, et al. (12) demonstrated that pure reductones produced by the reaction between hexoses and secondary amines were effective in inhibiting oxidation of vegetable oils. The importance of reductones formed from amino acids and reducing sugars is, however, still obscure. Eichner (6) suggested that reductone-like compounds, 1,2-enaminols, formed from Amadori rearrangement products could be responsible for the antioxidative effect of MRP. The mechanism was claimed to involve inactivation of lipid hydroperoxides. 

A constant observation when the MRP were separated by various methods was that antioxidative effect was found in many different fractions. Both the dialysates and the retentates from dialysis were antioxidative to some extent. All the electrophoresis fractions exhibited some antioxidative effect. Attempts to separate the MRP by column chromatography on Sephadex G-50 have resulted in several fractions with some antioxidative effect, and so on. This indicates that several antioxidative products are formed by the Maillard reaction, possibly differing in molecular size and chemical structure, but perhaps with one single antioxidative functional group in common, such as a free radical function. However, it can not be excluded that the MRP contain a few entirely different antioxidants with different modes of action. Various mechanisms have also been suggested. Eichner (6) claimed MRP to inactivate the hydroperoxides formed by the lipid oxidation. There are also reports on the complex binding of metals by MRP (18, 19). 

Blueberries contain condensed tannins that help prevent urinary tract infections. Blueberries contain Anthocyanin (which is responsible for its deep blue color), which is a flavonoid, a plant antioxidant (see Chapter 8 and Chapter 31). Flavonoids such as anthocyanin found in blueberries have a different chemical structure compared to other common antioxidants such as vitamin C, which makes them three to four times more potent. Antioxidants neutralize the effects of free radicals, which are unstable molecules that can attack human cells and damage their DNA. 

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