The Interaction of Water with Solid Surfaces: Fundamental Aspects Revisited

Free radicals and antioxidants are widely discussed in the clinical and nutritional literature. Antioxidants are needed to prevent the formation and oppose the actions of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, which are generated in vivo and cause damage to DNA, lipids, proteins, and other biomolecules. Endogenous antioxidant defenses (superoxide dismutases, H2O2-removing enzymes, metal binding proteins) are inadequate to prevent damage completely, so diet-derived antioxidants are important in maintaining health. Many dietary compounds have been suggested to be important antioxidants: The evidence for a key role of vitamins E and C is strong, but that for carotenoids and related plant pigments is weaker. Interest is also growing in the role of plant phenolics, especially flavonoids. Some antioxidants can exert prooxidant effects in vitro, but their physiological relevance is uncertain. Experimental approaches to the optimization of antioxidant nutrient intake are proposed.

Antioxidants in human health and disease

This article is a review of the fundamental chemistry of the tocopherols and tocotrienols relevant to their antioxidant action. Despite the general agreement that α-tocopherol is the most efficient antioxidant and vitamin E homologuein vivo, there was always a considerable discrepancy in its “absolute” and “relative” antioxidant effectivenessin vitro, especially when compared to γ-tocopherol. Many chemical, physical, biochemical, physicochemical, and other factors seem responsible for the observed discrepancy between the relative antioxidant potencies of the tocopherolsin vivo andin vitro. This paper aims at highlighting some possible reasons for the observed differences between the tocopherols (α-, β-, γ-, and δ-) in relation to their interactions with the important chemical species involved in lipid peroxidation, specifically trace metal ions, singlet oxygen, nitrogen oxides, and antioxidant synergists. Although literature reports related to the chemistry of the tocotrienols are quite meager, they also were included in the discussion in virtue of their structural and functional resemblance to the tocopherols.

The chemistry and antioxidant properties of tocopherols and tocotrienols

A procedure based on density functional theory is used for the calculation of the gas-phase bond dissociation enthalpy (BDE) and ionization potential for molecules belonging to the class of phenolic antioxidants. We show that use of locally dense basis sets (LDBS) vs full basis sets gives very similar results for monosubstituted phenols, and that the LDBS procedure gives good agreement with the change in experimental BDE values for highly substituted phenols in benzene solvent. Procedures for estimating the O--H BDE based on group additivity rules are given and tested. Several interesting classes of phenolic antioxidants are studied with these methods, including commercial antioxidants used as food additives, compounds related to Vitamin E, flavonoids in tea, aminophenols, stilbenes related to resveratrol, and sterically hindered phenols. On the basis of these results we are able to interpret relative rates for the reaction of antioxidants with free radicals, including a comparison of both H-atom-transfer and single-electron-transfer mechanisms, and conclude that in most cases H-atom transfer will be dominant.

Predicting the activity of phenolic antioxidants: theoretical method, analysis of substituent effects, and application to major families of antioxidants.

Antioxidant and prooxidant properties of flavonoids.

Quenching reactions of singlet oxygen and scavenging reactions of free radicals by α-, β-, λ- and σ-tocopheramines (Toc-amines) were investigated spectrophotometrically in ethanol and Triton X-100 micellar dispersions. The rate constants of quenching of singlet oxygen (k
 Q
 ) by α-, β-, λ- and σ-Toc-amines increased as the total electron donating capacity of the methyl groups at the aromatic ring increased. A plot of logk
 Q
 vs. peak oxidation potential (E
 p) was found to be linear and the slope was negative. Similar results were obtained for scavenging of a phenoxyl radical (PhO.). The results suggest that charge transfer plays an important role in these reactions. Thek
 Q values were found to be 1.30–2.57 times as large ask
 Q for α-tocopherol (α-Toc). Although α-Toc has the highest antioxidant activity among natural tocopherols and related phenols, Toc-amines also can serve as antioxidants.

Kinetic study of quenching reactions of singlet oxygen and scavenging reactions of free radicals by α-, β-, λ- and σ-tocopheramines in ethanol solution and micellar dispersion

Potential Energy Curve for Singlet-Oxygen Quenching Reaction by Vitamin E

Solvent effect on activities of aryloxyl‐radical scavenging and singlet‐oxygen quenching reactions by vitamin E: Addition of water to ethanol solution

A kinetic study of the prooxidant effect of α-tocopherol was performed. The rates of allylic hydrogen abstraction from various unsaturated fatty acid esters (ethyl stearate 1, ethyl oleate 2, ethyl linoleate 3, ethyl linolenate 4, and ethyl arachidonate 5) by α-tocopheroxyl radical in toluene were determined, using a double-mixing stopped-flow spectrophotometer. The second-order rate constants (k
 p) obtained are <1 × 10−2 M−1 s−1 for 1, 1.90 × 10−2 M−1 s−1 for 2, 8.33 × 10−2 M−1 s−1 for 3, 1.92 × 10−1 M−1 s−1 for 4, and 2.43 × 10−1 M−1 s−1 for 5 at 25.0 °C. Fatty acid esters 3, 4, and 5 contain two, four, and six –CH2– hydrogen atoms activated by two π-electron systems (–C=C–CH2–C=C–). On the other hand, fatty acid ester 2 has four –CH2– hydrogen atoms activated by a single π-electron system (–CH2–C=C–CH2–). Thus, the rate constants, k
 abstr/H, given on an available hydrogen basis are k
 p/4 = 4.75 × 10−3 M−1 s−1 for 2, k
 p/2 = 4.16 × 10−2 M−1 s−1 for 3, k
 p/4 = 4.79 × 10−2 M−1 s−1 for 4, and k
 p/6 = 4.05 × 10−2 M−1 s−1 for 5. The k
 abstr/H values obtained for 3, 4, and 5 are similar to each other, and are by about one order of magnitude higher than that for 2. From these results, it is suggested that the prooxidant effect of α-tocopherol in edible oils, fats, and low-density lipoproteins may be induced by the above hydrogen abstraction reaction.

Kinetic Study of the Prooxidant Effect of α-Tocopherol. Hydrogen Abstraction from Lipids by α-Tocopheroxyl Radical

In an aim to create a "sharp" molecular knife, we have studied site-specific fragmentation caused by Si:2p core photoionization of bridged trihalosilyltrimethylsilyl molecules in the vapor phase. Highly site-specific bond dissociation has been found to occur around the core-ionized Si site in some of the molecules studied. The site specificity in fragmentation and the 2p binding energy difference between the two Si sites depend in similar ways on the intersite bridge and the electronegativities of the included halogen atoms. The present experimental and computational results show that for efficient "cutting" the following conditions for the two atomic sites to be separated by the knife should be satisfied. First, the sites should be located far from each other and connected by a chain of saturated bonds so that intersite electron migration can be reduced. Second, the chemical environments of the atomic sites should be as different as possible.

A Study To Control Chemical Reactions Using Si:2p Core Ionization: Site-Specific Fragmentation

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

Shin-ichi Nagaoka

Author Tools

Chat about Author