Kinetic study of Sasa veitchii extract as a radical scavenger and an antioxidant.

UNLABELLED: We examined the free radical scavenging activity of Sasa veitchii extract (Hoshi's Striped Bamboo Extract(®), HSBE), well known in folk medicine as an efficient drug and antioxidant in detail. To evaluate the free radical scavenging activity of HSBE, its reactivity as hydrogen atom donor toward the 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl has been measured using stopped-flow spectrophotometry. It was found that the second-order rate constant, k(2), obtained at 25 °C was 1.4 (g/L)(-1) s(-1) for HSBE. To compare different chain-breaking antioxidants quantitatively, we obtained the second-order rate constant, k(2)', on the molar basis of active hydroxyl groups in the tested substances. As a result, the k(2)' values for HSBE, 6-hydroxy-2, 5, 7, 8-tetramethylchroman-2-carboxylic acid (Trolox), caffeic acid, and (+)-catechin were 2.6 × 10(3), 2.0 × 10(3), 2.3 × 10(2), and 6.0 × 10(2) M(-1) s(-1), respectively. These results show that HSBE and Trolox exerted the same free radical scavenging activity under these conditions. In addition, HSBE significantly inhibited the oxidation of methyl linoleate micelles in aqueous dispersions at 30 °C and its antioxidant activity (k(inh)) was more effective than those of caffeic acid and (+)-catechin. This is the first study on bamboo extracts in the context of radical scavenging activity that reports kinetic results. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: We determined the stoichiometric number and the rate constants of bamboo extracts using the method that was devised in determining the antioxidant activity of mixtures. This is the first study of bamboo extracts as an antioxidant that reports the stoichiometric and kinetic results.

Antioxidant activity of the new thiosulfinate derivative, S-benzyl phenylmethanethiosulfinate, from Petiveria alliacea L.

The antioxidant effects of the new thiosulfinate derivative, S-benzyl phenylmethanethiosulfinate (BPT), against the oxidation of cumene and methyl linoleate (ML) in chlorobenzene were studied in detail using HPLC. The results showed that BPT provided effective inhibition with a well-defined induction period under these oxidation conditions, and it was found that the stoichiometric factor (n), the number of peroxyl radicals trapped by one antioxidant molecule, of BPT is about 2. We then undertook a thorough investigation aimed at elucidating the active structural site of BPT. Various model compounds, such as diphenyl disulfide, dibenzyl disulfide, S-phenyl benzenethiosulfinate and S-ethyl phenylmethanethiosulfinate, were used which provided evidence that the benzylic hydrogen of BPT is mainly associated with the peroxyl radical scavenging. Moreover, we measured the rate constant for the reaction of BPT with peroxyl radicals derived from cumene and ML in chlorobenzene, and based on these measurements, BPT reacts with these peroxyl radicals with a rate constant of k(inh) = 8.6 x 10(3) and 6.2 x 10(4) M(-1) s(-1), respectively.

Kinetic and mechanistic studies of allicin as an antioxidant.

We have undertaken a detailed study of the antioxidant activity of allicin, one of the main thiosulfinates in garlic, in order to obtain quantitative information on it as a chain-breaking antioxidant. The antioxidant actions of allicin against the oxidation of cumene and methyl linoleate (ML) in chlorobenzene were studied in detail using HPLC. The hydroperoxides formed during the course of the inhibited oxidation of ML were analyzed as their corresponding alcohols by HPLC, and it is apparent that an allylic hydrogen atom of the allicin is responsible for the antioxidant activity. Furthermore, it is clear that the radical-scavenging reactions of allicin proceed via a one-step hydrogen atom transfer based on the results of the reaction with 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) in the presence of Mg2+ and calculation of the ionization potential value. In addition, we determined the stoichiometric factor (n), the number of peroxyl radicals trapped by one antioxidant molecule, of allicin by measuring the reactivity toward DPPH in chlorobenzene, and the value of n for allicin was about 1.0. Therefore, we measured the rate constants, k(inh), for the reaction of allicin with peroxyl radicals during the induction period of the cumene and the ML oxidation. As a result, we found that allicin reacts with peroxyl radicals derived from cumene and ML with the rate constants k(inh) = 2.6 x 10(3) M(-1)s(-1) and 1.6 x 10(5) M(-1)s(-1) in chlorobenzene, respectively. Our results demonstrate for the first time reliable quantitative kinetic data and the antioxidative mechanism of allicin as an antioxidant.

A bacitracin-resistant Bacillus subtilis gene encodes a homologue of the membrane-spanning subunit of the Bacillus licheniformis ABC transporter.

Bacitracin is a peptide antibiotic nonribosomally produced by Bacillus licheniformis. The bcrABC genes which confer bacitracin resistance to the bacitracin producer encode ATP binding cassette (ABC) transporter proteins, which are hypothesized to pump out bacitracin from the cells. Bacillus subtilis 168, which has no bacitracin synthesizing operon, has several genes homologous to bcrABC. It was found that the disruption of ywoA, a gene homologous to bcrC, resulted in hypersensitivity to bacitracin. Resistance to other drugs such as surfactin, iturin A, vancomycin, tunicamycin, gramicidin D, valinomycin and several cationic dyes were not changed in the ywoA disruptant. Spontaneous bacitracin-resistant mutants (Bcr-1 and -2) isolated in the presence of bacitracin have a single base substitution from A to G in the ribosome binding region. Northern hybridization analysis and determination of the expression of ywoA-LacZ transcriptional fusion gene revealed that the transcription of the ywoA gene was dependent on extracytoplasmic function (ECF) sigma factors sigma(M) and sigma(X). Preincubation of wild-type cells in the presence of a low concentration of bacitracin induced increased resistance to bacitracin about two- to threefold, although the mechanism of this induction has not yet been elucidated. It has been reported that a commercially available bacitracin is a mixture of several components and also contains impurity. Bacitracin A was purified by reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Similar results were obtained with bacitracin A as those with crude bacitracin, indicating that contaminating substances were not responsible for the results obtained in this study.