Free radicals are associated with numerous diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative disorders. The objective of the study was to develop a convenient technique to separate and detect the antioxidant profile of beverages. Pure naturally occurring antioxidants and those present in beverages were first separated by small pore-size polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The gels were then stained with an activity stain based on the ability of antioxidants to reduce ferricyanide to ferrocyanide. In the presence of ferric ions, a dark blue precipitate was formed that revealed the antioxidant bands on the gel. Evaluation of this method gave positive bands with pure antioxidants such as vitamin C, quercetin, syringaldehyde, resveratrol, epigallocatechin gallate and Trolox (a water-soluble derivative of vitamin E). The beverages tested include popular brands of tea, orange juice and wine. Under these conditions, the beverage samples also yielded various antioxidant bands, which varied with the type and brand of the beverage. This simple and inexpensive technique would be of immense use to assess the nature and properties of antioxidants in food and beverages.

Electrophoretic antioxidant profiles of beverages

246th National Meeting (2013)

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