Abstract

Nutrition related research, including the studies focused on the natural dietary antioxidants are getting more and more attention. Functional foods, that contain known or unknown biologically active compounds, promote health and wellbeing beyond dietary needs. Exogenous originating reducing compounds such as vitamin C, vitamin E, carotenoids and polyphenols, play important role in many antioxidant mechanisms in living organisms. There are a great number of synthetic antioxidant products in the market, whereby tendency is to replace synthetic antioxidants by natural ones. Here we examined the antioxidant properties of GE kids® and GE 132+ natural®, food supplements designed for maintenance and improvement of immune response in children and adults, respectively. Antioxidant properties were analyzed in vitro by testing their ability to scavenge free radical species and their ferric reducing antioxidant power. GE kids® and GE 132+ natural® showed antioxidant activity against physiologically relevant hydroxyl and superoxide radical, as well as against artificial radicals 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH·) and 2,2'-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS·+), commonly used for in vitro analyses of antioxidant properties. Interestingly, both food supplements showed the highest efficacy in scavenging hydroxyl radical, free radical which can be neutralized only by non‐enzymatic systems. Accordingly, anti-hydroxyl radical activity was equivalent to activity of 533.3 ± 6.1 mg of ascorbic acid (AA) per GE kids® sachet and 172.6 ± 12.3 mg of AA per GE 132+ natural® capsule. Results suggest that GE kids® and GE 132+ natural® may contribute maintaining the physiological levels of free radicals and therefore the oxido-redox balance in the organism.

Highlights

  • A food supplement, known as a nutritional or dietary supplement, is a preparation intended to provide nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, fibers, amino or fatty acids that are, either missing, or not consumed in sufficient amounts in person’s diet

  • It's well known that health giving properties of functional foods are partially due to their ability to maintain the physiological levels of reactive species [1,2]

  • This study aimed to investigate the antioxidant properties of GE kids® and GE 132+ natural® by testing their ability to scavenge physiologically relevant hydroxyl and superoxide radical, as well as 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH·) and 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS·+), artificial radical species which are the most often applied on plant extracts

Read more

Summary

Introduction

A food supplement, known as a nutritional or dietary supplement, is a preparation intended to provide nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, fibers, amino or fatty acids that are, either missing, or not consumed in sufficient amounts in person’s diet. There is growing interest in the research of natural dietary antioxidants. Dietary antioxidants are believed to play an important role in the human body defense system. They protect against oxidative damage induced by ROS, which is involved in the pathogenesis of many degenerative diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and cancers, as well as in the process of aging [4]. It is well established that functions of the human immune system depend on the intake of micronutrients with antioxidant properties [5,6]. The intake of food rich in naturally-occurring antioxidants, including vitamins and polyphenols, has been suggested to be beneficial for health promotion.

Objectives
Methods
Results
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call