Abstract
Indolic compounds are a broad family of substances present in microorganisms, plants and animals. They are mainly related with tryptophan metabolism, and present particularities that depend on their respective chemical structures. The most important members of the family are the plant hormone, indole-3-acetic acid, and the animal hormone, melatonin. An important characteristic of some indolic compounds is that they may be useful as chemical preventive agents against diseases such as cancer, oxidative stress, etc. For this reason, the possible antioxidant activities (free radical-scavenging activity) of several indoles were studied. The2,2'-azino-bis-(3-ethylbenzthiazoline-6-sulfonic acid /H2O2/HRP decoloration method was applied to determine both hydrophilic (in buffered media) and lipophilic (in organic media) antioxidant properties of the indolic compounds. Also, a study of the hydrophilic antioxidant activities of indoles at different pH values (between 4.5 and 8.5) was made. Finally, their possible role as diet plant antioxidants is discussed.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (I.N.I.A., Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología, Spain) project CAL00-062 and by the project PI-9/00759/FS/01 (Fundación Séneca, C.A. Murcia). A. Cano has a contract in the project CAL00-062 with the University of Murcia. The authors wish to thank A.N.P. Hiner for checking the draught manuscript.
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Cano, A., Alcaraz, O. & Arnao, M.B. Free radical-scavenging activity of indolic compounds in aqueous and ethanolic media. Anal Bioanal Chem 376, 33–37 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-003-1848-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-003-1848-7