Hydrophilic antioxidant scores against hydroxyl and peroxyl radicals in honey samples from Bosnia and Herzegovina

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the total hydrophilic antioxidant scores (THAS) against peroxyl (ROO•) and hydroxyl (OH•) free radicals in different types (d.t.) of bee honey from Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H). It has been analyzed 46 honey samples of d.t. such as: meadow honey (MeH), acacia honey (AH), forest honey (FH), mountain honey (MoH), heather honey (HH), and chestnut honey (CH). All analyses were performed by oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) assay, using trolox as a standard. Antioxidant capacity (AC) against ROO• and OH• (AC ROO • and AC OH • ) expressed as trolox equivalents per honey weight (mM TE/g): as the THAS [(AC (LA+HA)ROO • +AC (LA+HA)OH • ), AC derived from low-molecular and high-molecular weight antioxidants (LA and HA, respectively) together in the bulk], then as the HAS against ROO• and OH• derived from LA only (HAS(LA)), and as the HAS against ROO• and OH• derived from HA only (HAS(HA)). ORAC analysis showed that THAS d.t. of honeys decreased as follows FH>HH>AH>MoH>MeH>CH, then HAS(LA) d.t. of honeys decreased as follows MoH>FH>AH>HH>MeH>CH. Also, HAS(HA) for AH was higher than HAS(HA) for MeH.