Free Radical Scavenging and Cellular Antioxidant Properties of Astaxanthin

Astaxanthin is a coloring agent which is used as a feed additive in aquaculture nutrition. Recently, potential health benefits of astaxanthin have been discussed which may be partly related to its free radical scavenging and antioxidant properties. Our electron spin resonance (ESR) and spin trapping data suggest that synthetic astaxanthin is a potent free radical scavenger in terms of diphenylpicryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) and galvinoxyl free radicals. Furthermore, astaxanthin dose-dependently quenched singlet oxygen as determined by photon counting. In addition to free radical scavenging and singlet oxygen quenching properties, astaxanthin induced the antioxidant enzyme paroxoanase-1, enhanced glutathione concentrations and prevented lipid peroxidation in cultured hepatocytes. Present results suggest that, beyond its coloring properties, synthetic astaxanthin exhibits free radical scavenging, singlet oxygen quenching, and antioxidant activities which could probably positively affect animal and human health.

• Publication year

  2016

• Venue

  International Journal of Molecular Sciences

• Publication date

  2016-01-01

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Chemistry, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.3390/ijms17010103PMID 26784174PMCID 4730345
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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