Electrochemical Characterization of Synthetic Dendritic Antioxidants

Research interest on plant-based novel-antioxidant targets has grown over the past decade. One class of antioxidants that has drawn attention are flavonoids, due to their significant health benefits ranging from anti-inflammatory to anti-cancer properties. Some species, such as Quercetin, which is one of the most abundant flavonoids, have also been found to produce negative health consequences in the presence of transition metals or depending on the moiety present on the antioxidant species. Therefore, investigations into synthetic polyphenols provides a route for creating antioxidant candidates with well-defined structures and predictable properties. One mechanism to synthesize polyphenol species is as through repetitive synthetic steps resulting in a dendritic structure. Antioxidants synthesized in this manner may produce “dendritic effects”, which can improve solubility and increase antioxidant efficiency. Our research interests have centered on investigating antioxidant efficiency through electrochemical methods. In this work, square wave voltammetry was utilized to obtain characterization insights for various dendritic antioxidants. Lower limits of quantitation and detection, along with oxidation potentials, and voltammograms were collected for each dendritic species. It was also noted, that dendritic antioxidants produced an exponential change in analytical signal in relation to change in concentration. This exponential relationship between analytical signal and concentration has not been observed with non-dendritic species we have previously studied such as sesamol, rosemary extract, and butylated hydroxytoluene.