Histidine antioxidant properties

Besides all the sensory and texturizing properties, GA has interesting antioxidant properties such as an efficient capacity for deactivation of excited electronic states and moderated radical scavenging capacity. There is increasing experimental evidence that associate the antioxidant function with its protein fraction, mainly by amino acid residues such as histidine, tyrosine and lysine, which are generally considered as antioxidants molecules (Marcuse, 1960,1962 Park et al., 2005). 

Boldyrev, A.A., Dupin, A.M., Bunin, A.Y., Babizhaev, M.A. and Severin, S.E. (1987). The antioxidant properties of carno-sine, a natural histidine containing dipeptide. Biochem. Int. 15, 1105-1113. 

Chen, H., Muramoto, K., Yamauchi, F., Fujimoto, K., and Nokihara, K. (1998). Antioxidative properties of histidine-containing peptides designed from peptide fragments found in the digests of a soybean protein. ]. Agric. Food Chem. 46,49-53. 

Interestingly, some Maillard reaction products have antioxidant activity (reviewed in ref. [29]), the Maillard reaction products from the amino acid-sugar combination of histidine and glucose having stronger antioxidant properties than other combinations [30]. 

A.A. Boldyrev et al., Antioxidative properties of histidine-containig dipeptides from skeletal muscles of vertebrates. Comp. Biochem. Physiol, 89B (1988) 245-250. 

The dipeptide carnosine (jS-alanyl-histidine) is able to develop antioxidative properties, at least in vitro [9]. The dipeptide, however, does not enhance the metal-catalyzed free radical production, as does histidine. The high concentrations of this metabolite enable it to act as an antioxidant and as an anti-glycox-idation compound. This makes it an interesting substance in several age-related studies [10]. 

About 300 individual compounds with antimutagenic properties are known. The frequency of mutations can be reduced by some amino acids (arginine, histidine, methionine, cysteamine etc ), vitamins and provitamins (a-tocopherol, ascorbic acid, retinol, p-carotene, phylloquinone, folic acid), enzymes (peroxidase, NADPH oxidase, glutathione peroxidase, catalase), complex compounds of plant and animal origin, chemical substances with antioxidant properties (derivatives of gallic acid, ionol, oxypyridines, selenium salts and others). 

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