Stopped-Flow and Spectrophotometric Study on Radical Scavenging by Tea Catechins and the Model Compounds

概要

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Radical scavenging of four tea catechins, (-)-epicatechin (EC), (-)-epigallocatechin (EGC), (-)-epicatechin gallate (ECg) and (-)-eppigallocatechin gallate (EGCg), and the model compounds of their partial structure was examined against the 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical using stopped-flow and spectrophotometric methods. The number of DPPH radicals scavenged by a polyphenol molecule was larger than that of phenolic hydroxyl groups, suggesting that hydrogens which bond directly to the aromatic ring can also participate in radical scavenging. A model for the scavenging reaction was proposed in which the reaction proceeded with successive dehydrogenation from a polyphenol molecule. Analysis of the second order reaction rate constants and the activation parameters between DPPH and polyphenol at the early stage of the reaction showed that the values depended on the number of phenolic hydroxyl groups and their mutual position. Contribution of the A ring of catechins to the rate constants was estimated to be far smaller than that from the B ring. In the EGCg molecule, the B ring and the gallate group were not independent, but acted as a single group for DPPH radical scavenging.
1999-10-15