Antiradical Methods in Evaluating Antioxidant Potential of Preparations of Plant Origin

The formula for antioxidants is very difficult to define, although they had been used in food for centuries. Antioxidants are compounds used to delay the accumulation of free radicals and strengthen the oxidative stability of food. According to the activity mechanism of antioxidants, they can act by means of many different processes. The properties of antioxidants are also the result of many factors, like mixing ability and activity in different reaction environment systems, stability in processing time, as well as research methods used. However, there exist limitations concerning the use of these substances. Research reflects much interest on the influence of radicals generated by different environmental factors on human health and food stability, but there is still a need to find the substances that have wide antiradical properties. There are many methods for evaluating antiradical activity. This manuscript discusses the most popular and adequate methods. Widely used parameters of free radical scavenging ability as well as the evaluation of antioxidant potential are reactions with ABTS and DPPH radicals, the luminol chemiluminescence method, ORAC, FRAP, TRAP and many other assays. The aim of the comparison of these methods and this review is to qualify the effectiveness of different natural substances as scavengers possessing antiradical activity. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________