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Comparative Study of the Antioxidant Capacity of Four Stilbenes Using ORAC, ABTS+, and FRAP Techniques

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Abstract

Researchers use several different analytical techniques, such as ORAC, ABTS·+, or FRAP, for measuring the antioxidant capacity of bioactive compounds. However, many authors do not take into account that these three techniques have different objectives. This contribution reports on the use of two types of tests to evaluate the antioxidant activity of four stilbene tests based first on the hydrogen atom transfer reaction (ORAC method) and the second on the single electron transfer reaction (ABTS·+ and FRAP assays). For the ORAC assay, the greatest antioxidant activity was shown by resveratrol, followed by oxyresveratrol, pterostilbene, and pinosylvin, while in the ABTS.+ assay, the highest antioxidant capacity was presented by oxyresveratrol, followed by resveratrol, pinosylvin, and finally pterostilbene. In the FRAP assay, the reducing activity shown by all the stilbenes was below that obtained for trolox. The role of phenolic hydroxyl groups was studied. The technique used should be selected taking into account the objectives and the conditions of the medium.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology-A. Faculty of Biology, University of Murcia. Campus de Espinardo, 30071, Murcia, Spain

    Pilar Rodríguez-Bonilla, Fernando Gandía-Herrero, Adrián Matencio, Francisco García-Carmona & José Manuel López-Nicolás

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  1. Pilar Rodríguez-Bonilla
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  2. Fernando Gandía-Herrero
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  3. Adrián Matencio
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  4. Francisco García-Carmona
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  5. José Manuel López-Nicolás
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to José Manuel López-Nicolás.

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Funding

This work was funded by the “Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación” (MCINN, FEDER, Spain) (Project AGL2014–57431) and by “Programa de ayudas a Grupos de Excelencia de la Región de Murcia, de la Fundación Séneca, Agencia de Ciencia y Tecnología de la Región de Murcia” no. 19893/GERM/2015.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Conflict of Interest

A. Matencio has received a research grant (FPU UM) from the University of Murcia (R-1042/2015). P. Rodriguez-Bonilla declares that she has no conflict of interest. F. Gandía-Herrero declares that he has no conflict of interest. F. García Carmona declares that he has no conflict of interest and J.M. López-Nicolás declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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Rodríguez-Bonilla, P., Gandía-Herrero, F., Matencio, A. et al. Comparative Study of the Antioxidant Capacity of Four Stilbenes Using ORAC, ABTS+, and FRAP Techniques. Food Anal. Methods 10, 2994–3000 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-017-0871-9

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