Standardization of Humic Acids of Lowland Wood-Grass Peat from Tomsk Region

Abstract

Humic acids (HA) of peat consist of a complicated mixture of high-molecular-weight and polyfunctional alicyclic, hydroaromatic, aromatic, and heterocyclic compounds substituted by normal and branched alkyl chains of various lengths containing both saturated and unsaturated bonds with various functional groups [1]. Such structural features of HA enable them to participate in a variety of redox reactions and in enzyme—substrate interactions. HA can affect osmotic pressure, form chelate complexes, etc. Furthermore, HA are heteropolymers of aryl-glyco-proteide nature that can provide a source of macromolecular organic structural fragments for biosyntheses occurring in living organisms. Colloidal dispersions of HA exhibit surfactant and surface-electrical properties. As a result, HA can reduce the surface tension and viscosity of solutions and protoplasm, exhibit ionophoric activity, and change the electrophysiological properties of cell membranes. Taken together, the aforementioned properties are responsible for the multi-faceted pharmacological properties of HA. Their antioxidant activity due to a whole series of structural features deserves special attention. Aromatic HA contain a large number of carboxylic and quinoid groups that are redox catalysts and are responsible for the antioxidant activity [2, 3]. This is consistent with the protective properties of HA under the influence of various hazardous environmental factors such as intoxication, hypoxic states, immunopathologies, and viral and microbial infections.