Singlet oxygen quenching dietary carotenoids

Di Mascio, R, Kaiser, S., and Sies, H., Lycopene as the most efficient biological carotenoid singlet oxygen quencher. Arch. Biochem. Biophys., 274, 532, 1989. Cantrell, A. et ah. Singlet oxygen quenching by dietary carotenoids in a model membrane environment. Arch. Biochem. Biophys., 412, 47, 2003. 

Cantrell, A. et al., Singlet oxygen quenching by dietary carotenoids in a model membrane environment, Arch. Biochem. Biophys., 412, 47, 2003. 

Lycopene, the predominant carotenoid in tomatoes (Solatium lycopersicum), exhibits the highest antioxidant activity and singlet oxygen quenching ability of all dietary... 

Burke M, Edge R, Land EJ, McGarvey DJ, and Truscott TG. 2001. One-electron reduction potentials of dietary carotenoid radical cations in aqueous micellar environments. FEBS Letters 500(3) 132-136. Bystritskaya EV and Karpukhin ON. 1975. Effect of the aggregate state of a medium on the quenching of singlet oxygen. Doklady Akademii Nauk SSSR 221 1100-1103. 

Epidemiological evidence has suggested that dietary carotenoids may inhibit certain types of cancer. This may be due to their provitamin A activity and/or because carotenoids have the ability to act as antioxidants (Peto et al., 1981 Stahl and Sies, 1996). The antioxidant activity of carotenoids is conferred by the hydrophobic chain of polyene units that can quench singlet oxygen, neutralize thiyl radicals, and combine with and stabilize peroxyl structures (Palace et al., 1999). 

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