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Quantification of Antioxidants in Medicinal Plants and Foodstuffs Using Ce(IV) with Indigo Carmine as Chromogenic Probe

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Abstract

A simple, novel, sensitive and diversely applicable antioxidant assay method has been developed for the determination of total antioxidant capacity of some foodstuffs and medicinal plants. The method is based on the oxidation of antioxidants by a known amount of Ce(IV) sulphate under slightly acidic medium and subsequently allowing the unreacted Ce(IV) to react with a known amount of Indigo Carmine dye followed by measuring the unreacted blue-coloured Indigo Carmine dye solution at λ max = 610 nm at room temperature. The antioxidant power was evaluated in terms of trolox equivalent antioxidant capacities and compared with those of ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP–1.10 phenanthroline), Cu(II) reduction assay using bathocuproinedisulfonic acid disodim salt and 2, 2-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid methods. A good correlation (R 2 = 0.926) was found with the classical spectrophotometric FRAP assay. The proposed method is reproducible and successfully applied to assess the total antioxidant capacities in foodstuffs, vegetables and medicinal plants. The obtained results were compared with reference methods. Interference from other substances was also studied.

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Acknowledgement

One of the authors, A. Suma, is grateful to University of Mysore for providing all facilities to carry out this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Studies in Chemistry, University of Mysore, Manasagangotri, Mysore, 570006, Karnataka, India

    Padmarajaiah Nagaraja, Anandamurthy Suma, Narayana Aradhana, Anantharaman Shivakumar, Krishnegowda Avinash & Honnur Krishna

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  1. Padmarajaiah Nagaraja
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  2. Anandamurthy Suma
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  3. Narayana Aradhana
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  4. Anantharaman Shivakumar
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  5. Krishnegowda Avinash
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  6. Honnur Krishna
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Correspondence to Padmarajaiah Nagaraja.

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Nagaraja, P., Suma, A., Aradhana, N. et al. Quantification of Antioxidants in Medicinal Plants and Foodstuffs Using Ce(IV) with Indigo Carmine as Chromogenic Probe. Food Anal. Methods 5, 909–919 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-011-9328-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-011-9328-8

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