Chemists Hail a New Antioxidant

Chemists Hail a New Antioxidant
By: Ned Porter

A new family of antioxidants that are 100 times more effective than Vitamin E could be used at much smaller doses in dietary supplements and cosmetics but provide the same benefits.

"Vitamin E is nature's antioxidant and people have been trying to improve upon it for more than 20 years with only marginal success," says Ned Porter of Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tennessee. "We have taken a very big step in the right direction." Antioxidants counteract the damaging effects of reactive oxygen compounds, another species in tissues which are an essential part of our diets usually obtained from fruit and vegetables. However, there is a growing market for new "nutraceuticals" and inexpensive potent antioxidants that some people believe could help retard the aging process or the damaging effects of pollution on the body. Antioxidants are also added to plastics, rubber, fuels and lubricants, agricultural feed, and cosmetics to make them longer lasting.

To make the new antioxidants, the researchers began with the structure of Vitamin E. Vitamin E, alpha-tocopherol, is a phenol: it contains a benzene ring with a hydroxyl group (OH) attached. Several researchers have tried to make better antioxidants by attaching a nitrogen atom to the carbon ring. Theoretically, these molecules should be stronger antioxidants but they proved to be impractical because they were unstable in air.

The Vanderbilt team had the additional idea of not only attaching a nitrogen atom to the ring but substituting a nitrogen atom for one of the carbon atoms in the benzene ring itself. With both substitutions they found that the resulting pyridinols were not only air stable, but very potent antioxidants.

The Vanderbilt team will soon begin tests to see what health benefits or side-effects their new antioxidants may have.

Angew Chem Intl Edn, vol 42, 4370; http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.200351881